The life of Saint Boniface

HARVARD TRANSLATIONS

HARVARD TRANSLATIONS

EUGIPPIUS: The Life of Saint Severinus.
Translated into English for the first
time, with Notes, by GEORGE W.
ROBINSON, A.B., Secretary of the
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and
Sciences. 8vo. $1.50 net

WILLIBALD: The Life of Saint Boniface.
Translated into English for the first
time, with Introduction and Notes,
by GEORGE W. ROBINSON.

8vo. $1.15 net

THE

LIFE OF SAINT BONIFACE

BY

WILLIBALD

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH FOR THE FIRST TIME
WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES

BY

GEORGE W. ROBINSON

SECRETARY OF THE HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF
ARTS AND SCIENCES

CAMBRIDGE

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
IQl6

COPYRIGHT, 1916
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS

MANIBUS

SAMUEL COLCORD BARTLETT
HENRICI ELIAE PARKER
EDUARDI RUSH RUGGLES

LUDOVICI POLLENS

RUFI BYAM RICHARDSON

MARVINI DAVIS BISBEE

CAROLI FRANCISCI RICHARDSON

PROFESSORUM DARTMUTHENSIUM

INTER ANNOS MDCCCXC ET MDCCCXCIII

SACRUM

SEDEM SEPULCRI SERVET IMMOTUS CINIS
MEMORIA VIVAT NOMINUM

PREFACE

THIS first English translation of Willibald's Life of
Saint Boniface, the Apostle of Germany, is based on
Wilhelm Levison's edition of the text: Vitae Sancti
Bonifatii Archiepiscopi Moguntini (Hannoverae et
Lipsiae, 1905), pp. 1-57.

I am glad to express my obligations to Professors
Ephraim Emerton and Edward Kennard Rand of Har
vard University for helpful suggestions; and to Mr.
Frederick C. Dietz, who has kindly examined for me a
number of editions and translations in the British
Museum.

For some of the references in the notes I am indebted
to earlier commentators. Where these references
seem to have become common property, I have con
sidered specific acknowledgment unnecessary.

For the sake of convenience, I have employed cer
tain abbreviations in the footnotes, as follows :

E Ernst Dummler, S. Bonifatii et Lulli Epistolae.

In M . G. H., Epistolae Merowingici et Karolini

Aevi, torn, i (Berolini, 1892).
M . G.H.. . Monumenta Germaniae Historica.
P.L Jacques Paul Migne, Patrologia Latina.

GEORGE W. ROBINSON.

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS,
June, 1915.

CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTION n

THE LIFE OF SAINT BONIFACE 21

A LIST OF EDITIONS AND TRANSLATIONS OF
THE LIFE 95

INDEX OF AUTHORS CITED IN THE NOTES . . 105
GENERAL INDEX .... 109

INTRODUCTION

THE chief sources from which our knowledge of Saint
Boniface is drawn are, first, the writings of Boniface
himself, particularly his Letters, with the letters ad
dressed to him which have been preserved with his
own; secondly, the Life by Willibald. The Life of
Gregory,1 the saint's beloved disciple, by Liudger,2
also presents a number of valuable notices; and the
Life of Abbot Sturmi 3 of Fulda. by Eigil,4 gives the
best and fullest account of the beginnings of the great
abbey of Fulda,5 the special delight of the declining
years of Boniface,6 and the spot which he chose as the
final resting place for his body.7 Other contemporary
material includes a few passages in the chroniclers, and
in the Lives of Willibald, bishop of Eichstatt,8 and
Wynnebald, abbot of Heidenheim,9 brothers, and rela
tives of Boniface,10 by the Nun of Heidenheim.11

1 Abbot of Saint Martin at Utrecht; died about 775.

2 ' Apostle of the Frisians and Saxons '; bishop of Miinster c. 804-
809; died 809.

3 Died 779. 4 Died 822.

6 Founded 12 March 744. Eigil, Vita Sturmi, 13.

6 £., 86; Albert Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands , i (2d ed.,
Leipsic, 1898), p. 566.

7 E., 86; pages 79, 90, below.

8 Page 77, below. Bishop Willibald died not before 786.

9 Died 19 December 761.

10 Vita Wynnebaldi, 4: " qui carnale propinquitatis et sanguini
copulatione illo fuerat sociatus atque glutinatus."

11 The Nun appears to have written the Life of Willibald, from his

12 INTRODUCTION

The extant works of Boniface comprise a grammar,
some fragments on metres, poems, letters, and fifteen
sermons.1 The Life of Saint Livinus,2 formerly
wrongly ascribed to him, was probably composed
about the middle of the eleventh century.3

The grammar (Ars Domni Bonifacii Archiepiscopi et
Martyris) was edited by Angelo Mai in i835.4 It may

dictation and notes, not long after 23 June 778, and the Life of Wynne-
bald a little later, from the relation of his sister Waldburga, abbess of
Heidenheim, and of his friends and disciples. —Both Lives are printed
in M. G. H., Scrip tores, xv, i.

1 The authenticity of the sermons has been doubted; but without
sufficient cause. See the remarks of F. W. Rettberg, Kirchenge-
schichte Deutschlands (Gottingen, 1846-48), i, pp. 408 f.; and Adolf
Ebert, Geschichte der christlich-lateinischen Literatur bis zum Zeitalter
Karls des Grossen (Leipsic, 1874), p. 614.

The so-called Poenitentiak S. Bonifacii, printed by Anton Joseph
Binterim in his Denkwurdigkeiten der christ-katholischen Kirche, v, 3
(Mayence, 1829), pp. 430-436, cannot in its present form be earlier
than the ninth century. Whether its substance may be in part de
rived from the teachings of Boniface has been a matter of discussion.
F. W. H. Wasserschleben, Die Bussordnungen der abendldndischen
Kirche (Halle, 1851), p. 89, n. 2; P. H. Kiilb, Sdmmtliche Schriften des
heiligen Bonifacius (Ratisbon, 1859), ", PP- 439 f.; H. J. Schmitz, Die
Bussbucher und die Bussdisciplin der Kirche, i (Mayence, 1883), p. 745.

August Niirnberger publishes from Vatican manuscripts some doc
trinal fragments ascribed to Boniface. Programm des kb'nigl. kathol-
ischen Gymnasiums zu Neisse, 178 (Neisse, 1883), pp. xvii ff. One of
these fragments is highly interesting to students of the tradition of the
Roman exempla virtutis.

2 First published by Nicolaus Serarius, Epistolae S. Bonifacii
(Moguntiae, 1605), pp. 233-252.

3 Wilhelm Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittel-
alter (7th ed., Berlin, 1904-), i, pp. 147, 433-

4 Classicorum Auctorum e Vaticanis Codicibus editorum Tomus VII
(Romae, 1835), pp. 475~548.

INTRODUCTION 13

be assigned without hesitation to the period of the
author's teaching activity at Nhutscelle.1 The work is
wholly based on earlier writers, above all Donatus; 2
but the material is revised with a view to the practical
needs of teacher and scholar.3

The fragments on metres 4 probably date from the
same period.6 They appear to be based largely on Isi
dore of Seville.6

Of the poems the most important is a series of
twenty riddles on the virtues and vices, in 388 hexa
meters. John Allen Giles published the first 161 verses
in 18447 from a manuscript in the British Museum;
and the whole poem, from a Cambridge manuscript, in
1 85 1.8 The best edition is by Ernst Dummler9 (Bero-
lini, 1881). The riddles cannot be said to possess

1 Page 33, below: "imbued . . . with the eloquence of the art of
grammar."

2 Max Manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittel-
alters, i (Munich, 1911), p. 149-

3 Ibid.

4 Printed in Thomas Gaisford's Scriptores Latini Rei Metricae
(Oxonii, 1837), pp. 577-585; and (in part) by August Wilmanns, in
the Rheinisches Museum, Neue Folge, xxiii (1868), pp. 4°3 f-

5 Page 33, below: "imbued . . . with the pithy modulation of the
eloquence of metres "; E., 98.

6 Wilmanns notes a comical misunderstanding on the part of Boni
face. Isidore (Etymologiae, i, 37 — Wilmanns's reference is wrong)
says prosae autem studium sero viguit; Boniface renders this Orationis
autem studium primum egit Seron.

7 Bonifacii Opera, ii, pp. 109-115. Not the complete poem, as
Manitius wrongly says (op. cit., i, p. 151) : erring through a misunder
standing of a passage in Diimmler's preface.

8 Anecdota Bedae, Lanfranci, et aliorum, pp. 18-24, 38-45.

9 M. G. H., Poetae Latini Aevi Carolini, i, pp. 3-15.

14 INTRODUCTION

much merit as poetry; nevertheless they are import
ant because of the light which they shed upon the ideas
and character of Boniface. We have a brief introduc
tion, and then addresses of the ten principal virtues and
as many vices: Love, Orthodoxy, Hope, Justice, Truth,
Mercy, Patience, Christian Peace, Christian Humility,
Virginity; Greed, Haughtiness, Gluttony, Drunken
ness, Luxury, Envy, Ignorance, Vainglory, Negligence,
Wrath. That the riddles were composed after Boni
face entered upon his work in Germany has been in
ferred from verses 323 f., in the address of Ignorance:

" Ob quod semper amavit me Germanica tellus,
Rustica gens hominum Sclaforum et Scythia dura."

In addition to the riddles, there remain verses ad
dressed to Dudd,1 which may have served as a dedica
tion of the grammar; 2 and lines attached to letters to
Nithard 3 and Pope Zacharias.4

The letters were first edited by Nicolaus Serarius in
1605; 5 the best editions are those of Philipp Jaffe 6

1 Diimmler, op. cit., pp. 16 f.

2 Manitius, op. cit., i, p. 149.

3 E., 9.

4 E., 50. Diimmler, op. cit., pp. 1-19, publishes all these as Boni-
fatii Carmina, with a preface. He also assigns Carmina, iv (p. 18), to
Boniface, but withdraws the ascription in his edition of the Letters
printed eleven years later. E., 140.

6 Epistolae S. Bonifacii Martyris, Primi Moguntini Archiepiscopi,
Germanorum Apostoli, pluriumque Pontificum. Regum, 6* aliorum.
Moguntiae, 1605.

8 In his Bibliotheca Rerum Germanicarum, torn, iii (Monumenta
Moguntina), pp. 24-315.

INTRODUCTION 15

(1866) and Ernst Dummler l (1892). The collection in
which they are preserved includes not only letters of
Boniface and his successor Lul, but many written to
them, and a number of others of the same time; besides
a few earlier ones by Aldhelm 2 and others,3 apparently
included as models of composition. The letters of
Boniface., which cover the period from about 716
nearly to the time of his death, are of great interest and
value. Some are to the popes,4 concerning questions
of doctrine and administration; 5 one is a striking mes
sage of admonition to King Aethelbald of Mercia; 8
others are to the Prankish rulers ; 7 but a peculiar
charm attaches to those which the saint wrote to his
devoted Anglo-Saxon friends, male 8 and female,9 as
suring them of his warm and constant love, thanking
them for gifts,10 and asking, now for advice,11 now for
their prayers in his behalf 12 and in that of the pagan
Germans 13 whose conversion he sought, but perhaps

1 In M. G. H., Epistolae Merowingici et Karolini Aevi, i, pp. 231-

43i.

2 £.,1,2,3; 6V (in verse).

3 Ibid., 4, 5, 7, 8; 6I-6IV (in verse).

4 To Zacharias, ibid., 50, 86; to Stephen III, ibid., 108, 109.
(*Ibid., 50, 86, 109. • Ibid., 73-

T*Ibid., 48, 93, 107.

8 Ibid., 9, 32, 33, 34, 38, 63, 69, 74, 75, 76, 78, 91.

9 Ibid., 10, 27, 30, 35, 65, 66, 67, 94, 96.

10 Ibid., 27, 30, 75, 78, 91.

11 Ibid., 32, 33, 34, 63, 91.

12 Ibid., 27, 30, 33, 34, 38, 65, 66, 67, 74, 76, 91, 94.

u Ibid., 38, 65. 46 is a general request " to all God-fearing Catho
lics of English race and stock " to pray for the conversion of the
heathen Saxons.

1 6 INTRODUCTION

most eagerly of all for books.1 " I beseech that thou
copy for me in gold the epistles of my lord, Saint Peter
the Apostle, unto the honor and reverence of the Holy
Scriptures before the eyes of fleshly folk when I
preach." 2

Dr. Giles has given English translations of letters of
Boniface to Bishop Daniel of Winchester, the Abbess
Bugga, and the youth Nithard.3 Dr. Isaac Gregory
Smith translates the letter to Bugga; others to the
Abbess Eadburga and to Abbot Dudd; and part of one
to Pope Zacharias.4 Edward Kylie has translated the
correspondence of Boniface and his English friends.6

The sermons, first printed in 1733,* are most easily
accessible in Giles's 7 or Migne's 8 edition of the works
of Boniface. Dr. Giles, in the preface to the second
volume of his edition, turns into English Remy Ceil-
lier's summary of their contents; and a translation of
part of one may be found in Dr. Smith's Boniface.9 In
the sixth sermon is an especially vigorous denunciation
of heathen practices, and a lively description of the
place of torment that awaits those who are guilty of
them or of other capital sins.

1 E-, 33, 34, 35, 63, 75, 76, 91. 2 Ibid., 35.

3 Bonifacii Opera (1844), i, PP- 12-20. E., 63, 94, 9.

4 Boniface (1896), pp. 81-93. E., 65, 94, 34, 50.

5 The English Correspondence of Saint Boniface (London, 1911):
in the series called The King's Classics.

6 At Paris, in Edmond Martene and Ursin Durand's Veterum Scrip-
torum Amplissima Collectio, torn, ix, coll. 185-218.

7 London, 1844: vol. ii, pp. 57-107.

8 P. L.y vol. Ixxxix (Parish's, 1850), coll. 843-872.
»Pp.99ff.

INTRODUCTION 17

The Life of Boniface lHbaldthe translation of

which we give, w^sj^itteEL^thin & few yearsj)|Jthe
saint's death, almost certainly nqtj.ater than(2ffify at_
the request of Boniface's successor, Luj^and of Bishop
Megingoz of Wul^urg."niVilirbald, a priest of Anglo-
Saxon origin/is an "author worthy^i^TTlFe^p'ect ~as"
regards industry and veracity. The_jchiel ^defects of
his work are two: a style inflated and obscure, sup
ported by no sufficient foundation of grammatical
knowledge; and the comparative scantiness of the in
formation which he supplies concerning much of the
later life of Boniface.3 Fortunately the omissions can
be supplied in part from the other sources.

Later lives of Boniface are printed, Tn full or in part,
and discussed by Levison in his Vitae Bonifatii. These
add little or nothing to our knowledge; indeed, they
have rather served to confuse the history of the saint.
This is particularly true, in different ways, of the
worthless Mayence legends collected in the work which
Levison calls the ' Fourth Life/ and of the attempts to
simplify and popularize made by the monk Otloh of
St. Emmeram, the most distinguished writer of his

1 Levison, Vitae Bonifatii, p. x.

2 Ibid., pp. viii f. He was long confused with Saint Willibald,
bishop of Eichstatt. Ibid., pp. vii f . To this confusion may be traced
Manitius's amazing reference to him as a relative of Boniface. Ge-
schichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, i, p. 146.

8 E. g., hejioes not mention Pope Zacharias^74^-52^ with _ w_hpm
Boniface had a copious correspondence.^ Wattenbach discusses the
general question of the omissions. DeittscUands Geschichtsquellen,
i, pp. 151 f.

1 8 INTRODUCTION

time, whose work was written during his stay at Fulda
in the years 1062 to IO66.1

The modern literature relative to Boniface is impos
ing in quantity, particularly in Germany; of its aver
age quality not so much can be said. One may begin
with the notices annexed to the editions which I have
named, and with the sections in the Ecclesiastical His
tories of Rettberg and Hauck, in Ebert's Geschichte der
christlich-lateinischen Literatur, and in Max Mani-
tius's Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelal-
ters: these, with Potthast's Wegweiser, will point the
way to further study. In English there is little of
scholarly worth, save for the booklet Boniface, by
Isaac Gregory Smith, in the series The Fathers for Eng
lish Readers.

We are indebted to England, on the other hand, for
William Selwyn's fine poem Winfrid, afterwards called
Boniface (Cambridge and London, 1865), in blank
verse.2 In German poetry Johann Baptist Rousseau's
Das Bonifazius-Lied 3 (Mayence, 1855) is not without
merit. Dr. Wiss's Latin poem Bonifacius, affixed to

1 " Petitionibus vestris, fratres Fuldenses, prout scientiae meae
parvitas permisit, parere studui. Petistis enim, ut sancti patris nostri
Bonifacii vitam precipuo quidem elegantique, utpote sancti Willi-
baldi, stilo antiquitus editam, sed in locis quibusdam ita infirmo intel-
lectui velatam, ut difficile pateat quo oratio tendat, hanc ego sententia
apertiori reserarem." Otloh, Vita Bonifacii, Prologus.

2 915 lines.

3 Zur Erinnerung an die Verherrlichung des heil. Winfried-Boni-
fazius, des Aposlels von Deutschland und Erzbischofs von Mainz, bei der
eilfhundertjahrigen Jubelfeier von dessen Martyrium im Juni 1855.
Fifty-six pages. There is a curious Politische Apostrophe (pp. 50-52)

INTRODUCTION 19

his translation of the Letters (Fulda, 1842), also should
not be overlooked. Trithemius's story of a poem on
Boniface in heroic verse, by Ruthard, a monk of
Hirschau, is a pure invention.1

The importance of the work of Boniface in the ec
clesiastical, and, indeed, in the general history of \
Europe cannot easily be exaggerated. His activities
may, however, be viewed under several aspects, ac
cording as we consider him as one of the foremost ;
scholars of his time, introducer of learning and litera- 7
ture and to a large extent of the arts of civilized life
into the German lands; or as the great champion of j
Rome and of ecclesiastical uniformity in Central Eu
rope; or as a missionary of God, a soldier and leader in
the great Christian warfare against the heathen of the
North. The relative value which should be assigned

in denunciation of the English for their aid to Turkey in the Crimean
War:

" Vor eilfhundert Jahren und noch friiher

Sandte England Manner uber's Meer,

Deutsche Heiden, die im Pferdgewieher

Gottes Nahe wahnten, als Erzieher

Zu gewinnen fiir die Christuslehr*.

Nach eilfhundert Jahren ziehn die Briten
. . .'Hort! . . . mit einer Riesenflotte aus,
Um fiir Die, wodurch wir nur gelitten,
Heiden, Haremshelden, Sodomiten,
Christen zu bereiten blut'gen Strauss."

1 Joannes Trithemius, Chronicon Monasterii Hirsaugiensis (Basil-
eae, 1559), p. 21: " Ruthardus quoque . . . hujus coenobii Hirsau
giensis . . . scripsit . . . passionem sancti Bonifacii archiepiscopi
heroico carmine pulcherrime in duobus libris." See Levison, Vitae
Bonifatii, p. xlvii, n. 2.

20 INTRODUCTION

j to Ids labors in enforcing uniformity within the church,

'vand in seeking the conversion of the pagan folk with

out, must always remain an open question. No doubt

* certain tendencies, political rather than religious, in

the German historical writing of the last half-century

have tended to exalt the proportionate importance of

his work as an ecclesiastical organizer. I think the

man himself saw more truly, as the witness of his

martyr's death attests.

THE LIFE OF SAINT BONIFACE

THE LIFE OF SAINT BONIFACE

PROLOGUE

To the lords venerable and truly in Christ most dear,
Lul and Megingoz colleagues in the episcopacy, Willi-
bald, priest in the Lord, though unworthy.

Paying due complaisance of obedience to your holi
ness, but with no confident reliance upon my own liter
ary training, I have cheerfully obeyed in will and act
your pious fatherly command. With my feeble
strength I have begun and carried through unto the
end the difficult task which ye imposed upon me. But
I beseech that if the result shall be otherwise than as
your wish desires, ye weigh justly the weakness of my
infirmity and the loftiness of the task laid upon me,
since it is the strongest proof of my regard that I do
not refuse obedience to your sublime command. If, on
the other hand, I shall accomplish anything worthy
and that shall profit our times, assuredly it must be as
cribed to the divine gift,1 and to your command and
earnest desire; since sometimes the pious wish of one
who earnestly desires may be likened unto the hand of

1 For the words and ideas of the Prologue to this point, Willibald is/
largely indebted to the prefatory letter prefixed by Victorius Aqui-"-}
tanus to the Easter Table which he sent to Archdeacon Hilary of/
Rome in 457. M. G. H., Auctores Antiquissimi, ix (Berolini, 1892), 7
pp. 677 f. (

WILLIBALD

an who presses the oilpress, and by the strength of
its pressing obtains at least a little of the sweet fruit of
the longed for knowledge, and, bestowing it, revives
the famishing. For your holiness has determined to
make equal, even to prefer, the foolish to the wise,
and the less capable to the prudent, and to commit to
me in my ignorance that which surely without effort ye
could have presented in the language of the wise. But
I entreat that the supplication of continual prayer may
bedew him whom the oilpress of your command hath
pressed. I entreat that his mind, dulled by the fog of
sloth, may be awakened by the wish of your sponta
neous love: in order that for the task, to which it has
been summoned through your compulsion, it may be
strengthened by a vigorous literary style.

For at the request of religious and Catholic men, to
whom, whether in the parts of Tuscany or the confines
of Gaul or the approaches of Germany or even within
the bounds of Britain, great report had come of the
fame and of the dazzling miracles of Saint Boniface the
martyr, ye have constrained me to write, after the pat- /
tern of those whose pure lives and virtuous characters (
the most holy fathers have put on paper in elegantly/
circumlocutory language 1 and handed down, the be- )
ginning, course, and end of his life, as I should ascer
tain it, making the most careful investigation in my
power, from the narration of his disciples who had long
tarried with him, or of yourselves. And as, when thei

1 Eleganti verborum ambage. An excellent description of Willi-
bald's own ideal of style.

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE

covenant of the first transgression was cancelled * and
the rays of the true light began to dawn, Hegesigpus,
who is reported to have come to Rome in the time of
Anacletus,2 published, it is said, five books of church
history for the profit of readers; 3 and as Eusebiusjrf
Caesarea, the most famous among the writers of his
tory, and his assistant, the_jnj£tyrPainphilus, com
posing the histories of their own and preceding times
with wondrous eloquence of language, published in
numerable volumes;4 and, further, as ^^gorvj of
blessed memory, a man most learned in literary studies
and occuping the glorious height of the apostolic chair,
wrote the life of the sainted confessors, exhibiting a
niaryeUojisly^jnanaged. Dialectic style, ana^EHsEed
thejgor^ in fourT)oo£sin syllogistic form,6 which to
this day, placed in tEelibraries of the churches, bring
to posterity the laborious grandeur of knowledge: so
ye bid me to reveal to this age and to the ages to come
the life of the saint, and his lofty virtues, his practice of
piety, and the strength of his abstinence.7 But al
though I know that I am a slight and insignificant

1 Hebrews, ix, 15.

2 Anicetus, bishop of Rome 157 ?-i68: sometimes known as Ana
cletus I.

3 Saint Jerome, De Viris Illustribus, 22.

8 Gregory the Great, pope 590-604.

6 Dialogorum Libri IV de Vita et MiraculisPatmniJjLa^orum el de
A eter n^lafe AmmarifffnT

^ ^ Here an (TTcTthe following sentence Willibald borrows words and
phrases freely from the prologue of Rufinus's Historia Monachorum.
P. L., xxi, coll. 387 f.

26 WILLIBALD

writer to tell so great a story, yet, since the wish of
your benevolence demands, I will attempt, with your
aid, this task which ye have given me in charge: not
relying on the pride of my own presumption, but trust
ing confidently in the assistance of Catholics; nor
seeking from my weak pen the spreading abroad of my
own glory; but furnishing by the relation of so great a
story an example that shall profit readers, as each,
learning from this pattern, is led to better things by the
perfection of his own progress.

CHAPTER I

How IN CHILDHOOD HE BEGAN TO SERVE GOD

THE illustrious and truly blessed life of Saint Boniface
the archbishop, and his character, consecrated partic
ularly by imitation of the saints, as I have learned
them from the narratives of pious men, who, having
zealously attended upon his daily conversation and the
way of his piety, handed down to posterity as an ex
ample those things which they heard or saw: this life
and character I seek, hindered as I am by the darkness
of knowledge, to interweave in the meagre warp of this
work and to present concisely in the plain garb of his
tory; and from the beginning even unto the end, with
the most thorough investigation in my power, to reveal
the sanctity of his divine contemplation.

When, in the first bloom of boyhood,1 his mother had
weaned and reared him with a mother's wonted great
and anxious care, his father took exceeding great de
light in his companionship, and loved him above his
brothers. But when he was about four or five years
old, it was his passion to enter God's service and to
study and toil over the monastic life continually,

1 We may reasonably suppose that the childhood of Boniface was
passed hi southwestern England, not far from Exeter. However, the
statement that he was born at Crediton, in Devonshire, cannot be
traced further back than John de Grandisson, bishop of Exeter 1327-
69. Levison, Vitae Bonifatii, pp. xxix, 5, n. 2.

27

28\ WILLIBALD

and his soul panted after that life every day; for
already he had subdued unto his spirit all that is tran
sitory and determined to meditate upon the things of
eternity rather than those of the present. Indeed,/
when certain priests, or clerks, had gone out to the layS
folk to preach unto them, as is the custom in those (
countries,1 and had come to the town and house of the /
saint's father, presently, so far as the weakness of his
tender years permitted, the child began to talk with
them of heavenly things, and to ask what would help
him and his infirmity 2 for the future.

When thus in protracted meditation he had thought
long of heavenly things, and his whole being was strain
ing forward to the future and upward to the things
which are on high, at last he laid bare his heart to his
father, and asked him to take his desire in good part.
His father, astounded at the tidings, rebuked him most
vehemently; and, on the one hand, forbade him with
threats to abandon him; on the other, incited him
with blandishments to the care of worldly business;
that he might subdue him to the temporal gain of a
transitory inheritance, and, when his own death came,

1 Bede, Vita S. Cuthberti, 9, and Historia Ecchsiastica, iv, 27
(GUe^VlransIairtOnTr~"lTw^ of the English people,
that when a clerk or priest came into the town, they all, at his com
mand, flocked together to hear the word, willingly heard what was
said, and more willingly practised those things that they could hear
and understand." The practice of itinerant preaching appears to
have fallen into disuse early in the eighth century upon the general
institution of parish churches.

2 In the sense of human frailty, as in Hebrews, iv, 15; v, 2; vii,
28.

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE (29

X --•

leave him guardian, or rather heir, of his earthly goods.
Using the deceitful subtlety of human cunning, he
strove in long talks to turn aside the young heart from
the fulfilment of the purpose it had formed, and prom
ised, with many a flattering word, that this active
life would be more tolerable to the child's tender years
than the contemplative life of the monastic warfare: l
that so he might restrain the boy from the attempt to
carry out this purpose; and incite him to the vo
luptuousness of mundane luxury. But the saint was
already in his boyhood filled with God's spirit; and
the more his father held him back, the more he took
stout heart, and anxiously panted to provide himself
a treasure in heaven,2 and to join himself to the
sacred study of letters. And it happened in wondrous
wise, as ever the divine compassion is wont to act, that
God in his foresight bestowed upon his young soldier
consolation in his undertaking and an increase of
anxious desire, and a hasty change of mind in the ob
stinate father: so that at one and the same instant of
time sudden sickness crept upon the father, whom the
unexpected moment of death already threatened; and
the boy's pious desire, long balked, increased most
swiftly, and, with the aid of the Lord God, was fulfilled
and perfected in its increase.

For the saint's father according to the flesh, when
by the wonderful judgment of the dispensation of

1 See Eugippius, The Life of Saint Severinus, English translation
(Cambridge, 1914), p. 45, n. i.

2 Matthew, vi, 20; Luke, xii, 33.

30 WILLIBALD

God great sickness had seized upon him, quickly put
away his former obstinacy of heart, made an assembly
of the kindred, and of his own free will, but moved
by the Lord, directed the boy to the monastery which
is called by a name of the ancients Ad-Escancastre,1
and committed him to an embassy of trusty messen
gers to deliver to the faithful Wulfhard, who was
abbot of that monastery. The little boy, his friends
standing beside him, addressed Wulfhard discreetly,
and, making his request intelligently, as his parents 2
had taught him aforetime, declared that he had long
desired to submit himself to the monastic rule.
Forthwith the father of the monastery, after taking
counsel with the brethren and receiving their bene
diction, as the order of the regular life demanded,3
granted his consent and the fulfilment of the boy's
wish. And so the man of God, bereaved of his father
according to the flesh, followed the adoptive father of
our redemption,4 and, renouncing the earthly gains of
the world, strove to acquire the merchandise of an
eternal inheritance: that, according to the veridical
voice of truth, by forsaking father, or mother, or lands,
or the other things which are of this world, he should
receive a hundredfold, and should inherit everlasting
life.5

1 Exeter.

2 Perhaps rather ' relatives.'

3 Saint Benedict of Nursia, Regula, 3.

4 Romans, viii, 14, 15, 23.

5 Matthew, xix, 29.

CHAPTER II

How IN THE BEGINNING HE OVERCAME THE PASSIONS

OF YOUTH AND CLAVE TO ALL THAT WAS GOOD

/ THE first section of our narrative is now completed,
/ though in outline.1 Next we shall briefly make known
the virtuousness to which the saint trained himself in
the beginning of his studious life : in order that after we
have laid the foundation of the fabric of our work, the
loftiness of the structure may little by little be raised
higher to the summit.

For after he waxed in age and in admirable strength
of knowledge, and the seven years of infancy 2 glided
away, and the glory of boyhood came, by the inspira
tion of heavenly grace he was enriched with great and
unutterable dignity of mind, as is shown by the ex
amples given later in this work; and, living according
to the model afforded by the earlier saints, and in
obedience to the ordinances of the venerable fathers,
he was manifested and adorned by the purity of many
virtues. Moreover he was so kindled by divine genius,
and so applied himself especially to the exercise of
reading, that in all the moments and hours and revolv
ing years that were added to his life, the helps and the

1 An imitation of Aldhelm, DeLa^e^¥itgintia4is^4o. Levison
points out other verbal borrowingsirom Aldhelm hi the notes to his
edition, pp. 3, n, 12, 14, 18, 27, 42, 50.

2 Isidorus Hispalensis, Etymologiae, xi, 2; Bede, Vita S. CuMerti, i.

"31"

32 WILLIBALD

divinely augmented gifts of the Protector on high were
also increased within him. And the more he progressed
in the school of the priesthood, the more, as trusty men
who were his intimate associates have borne certain
witness, did his daily studies, in continual meditation
day and night upon literary training, incite him to the
increase of eternal blessedness, and protect him mar
vellously against the inimical persecutions of diabolical
suggestion, which among men are wont often to cover
the tender flower of youth as it were with a kind of fog
of cloudy darkness; so that also, because of his cease
less care and long solicitude and his perpetual exami
nation of the sacred laws, and by the help of the Lord
God, the seductive passions of youth within him, and
the assaults with which fleshly lusts at first assailed
him, for the most part subsided. And more and more
his studies carried him forward to the general instruc
tion of the people,1 which, after the passage of no great
interval of time, he began, enlarged, and perfected, in
accordance with the episcopal ordinance of ecclesiasti
cal prescription. For he despised the perishable adorn
ments of this world, and in his childhood, under the
moderate government of Father Wulfhard, kept the
pattern of the monastic life well and duly for many
years; until, when sportive boyhood was over and
manly youth began,2 the more glowing desire of his

1 As described later in this chapter and in the following. The con
jecture of Jaffe" and Levison, that the reference is to Boniface's later
activities among the pagans, cannot be accepted.

2 At fourteen. Isidorus Hispalensis, Etymologiae, xi, 2. Willibald
appears to have in mind this passage of Isidore, or the similar one

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE

spirit fired him to go, with the consent and advibe-ttf
his trusty fellow servants and of the father of the mon
astery, to neighboring monasteries also, whither he was
summoned by the want of teachers of reading.1

And when in wish and spirit he asked constantly and
with great perseverance in prayer that the approbation
of the Almighty should be present unto him, at length,
inspired by divine grace from heaven, he came to the
monastery which even to this day is called Nhutscelle;2
and, incited by the spiritual love of letters, chose the
mastership of Abbot Winbert of blessed memory,3 who
was venerably governing the monastery under the dis
cipline of the rule, and the companionship of the breth
ren who there dwelt with him in the Lord. And so,
joined to the fellowship of the servants of God, he
exhibited with great zeal of meditation devoted service
to the Lord God, and laborious perseverance in vigils,
and the work of reading the divine word; so that he
was imbued not only with the eloquence of the art of
grammar and with the pithy modulation of the elo
quence of metres,4 but also with the straightforward^

of Bede, mentioned above, in the references to the periods of human
life which he makes here and elsewhere.

1 The language is ambiguous. But the connection shows that the
lack of teachers was at Exeter.

2 Nursling, or Nutshalling, between Winchester and Southampton;
as Selwyn has it,

" Nutescelle, sheltering under Winton's see,
Where woodland Hants o'er narrow channel looks,
To the fair Isle."
* Mentioned by Boniface, E., 63.

4 It is to this period that we may best assign the grammatical
and metrical writings of Boniface, mentioned in the Introduction.

/34/ WILLIBALD

/ exposition of history and with the triple interpretation

S of spiritual knowledge,1 and at last shone so praise-
worthily in immense knowledge of the Scriptures and
in skill of teaching, that he was even a teacher to others
of the traditions of the fathers, and a model master,
who before did not refuse to be the pupil of inferiors.
For it is the manner of holy conversation, that he dare
not prefer himself to others, who has refused to be sub
ject to others: because he will not be able rightly to
/apply to inferiors the service of obedience which he

, does not duly render to those that are set over him by

/ the direction of heaven.2

This service the saint in such wise gave, under a
monk's obedience, to all the members of the com
munity, and above all, as the discipline of the rule
demanded, to his abbot, that in accordance with the
prescribed pattern of the noble constitution of the
blessed father Benedict3 he applied himself without
ceasing to daily labor of his hands and to the regular
performance of his duties: being an example for all
of right living, in word, in conversation, in faith, in

1 Joannes Cassianus, Conlationes, xiv, 8, i : " Spiritalis autem
scientiae genera sunt tria, tropologia, allegoria, anagoge " ; ibid.,
xiv, 8, 7: " Doctrina vero simplicem historicae expositionis ordinem
pandit." Cassianus gives as an illustration Jerusalem: which in
history is a city of the Jews; by tropology, the soul of man; by
allegory, the church of Christ; and by anagoge, the heavenly city
of God.
f ( 2 Gregory the Great, Dialogi, i, i, in P. L., Ixxvii, col. 156 c.

3 Saint Benedict, Regula, 48: " Idleness is the enemy of the soul,"
etc.

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE

purity; l that all might receive of his fruit, and that ne
might receive from all a portion of the wages of eter
nity.2 But God alone, who knoweth what is in the
darkness,3 looked into the depths of his heart and knew
the excellency of his humility and charity: by which
with sagacious solicitude he had won the leadership f^a'75
over all his fellow soldiers;4 so that they held him
equally in fear and love, and whom they had as fellow
in the divine love, him they preferred as father in the
mutual honor of the apostolic admonition.5 And the
greatness of his kindness towards the brethren and
of his heavenly learning so increased, that the report
of his holy exhortation spread abroad, and his fame
shone very brightly among the monasteries, those of
men and also those of the virgins of Christ. Of their
inmates, indeed, great numbers, who were of the
stronger sex, flocked together unto him, impelled by
thirst for reading, and drank of the most healthful
spring of knowledge, and surveyed and read numerous
volumes of the Scriptures. But they of the weaker
sex, who could not come continually, kept before their
minds this man whose vast wisdom was filled with the
spirit of divine love; and, running over page after
page, applied themselves earnestly to the investigation
of heavenly things, and meditated perpetually upon
the secrets of the sacraments and the hidden things of

1 I Timothy, iv, 12.

2 Compare Mark, xii, 2; John, iv, 36.

3 Daniel, ii, 22.

4 Commilitones. Compare Philippians, ii, 25; Philemon, 2.
6 Romans, xii, 10.

I$6J WILLIBALD

me mysteries. And supernal grace so sustained him,

that, according to the example of the distinguished

preacher and the words of the teacher of the Gentiles,

he held fast the form of sound words, in the faith and

love of Jesus Christ; 1 " studying to show himself ap-

i proved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be

/ ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth." 2

1 II Timothy, i, 13. 2 Ibid., ii, 15.

« TM ( fj<j "(Tin
CHAPTER

THAT HE PROFFERED THE WORD OF INSTRUCTION TO ALL, AND
THAT HE DID NOT ASSUME THE OFFICE OF INSTRUCTION OF
HIS OWN WILL, OR BEFORE HE ATTAINED THE PROPER AGE

WE will turn for a time to the general manner of the
saint's daily contemplation and the long continued
abstemiousness of his frugality: that, mounting higher
and higher, we may more readily relate concisely and
briefly his lofty works, and follow to the end the study
of his venerable life, and explore it more precisely; and
that by a just moderation of the balance Boniface may
become an example for us of eternity and^jnanifest
jUH*-^ pa_ttemof_^]30j>^ Through the examples

, ^/* of the saints, he happily ascended the steep path of
heavenly knowledge, and, going on before the people
as a leader, he went into and opened the gate of the
Lord our God, into which the righteous shall enter.1
And from his childhood even to decrepit old age, he
particularly imitated the wisdom of the departed
fathers, inasmuch as he daily and continually commit
ted to memory the words of the prophets and apostles,
* / written with holy pen, and the glorious passion of the

^martyrs, put in writing, and also the gospel teaching
of the Lord our God; and, in the words of the apostle,
whether he ate or drank, or whatsoever he did,2 he

1 Psalms, cxviii, 19, 20. 2 I Corinthians, x, 31.

37

0

WILLIE ALD

tways rendered unto God with heart and voice the
commendation of praise and the highest degree of de
voted jubilation, according to the word of the psalm
ist: "I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise
shall continually be in my mouth." l For to such an
extent was he inflamed with ardent desire for the
Scriptures, that often he applied himself with every
effort to imitating them and listening to them; and
the matters which were written for the instruction of
the people, he paraphrased and preached to the people /
with wonderful eloquence of speech and very shrewdly S
added parables. He had such a right proportion of dis- '
cretion, that neither was the energy of his rebuke lack
ing in gentleness, nor the gentleness of his preaching in
energy; but as the zeal of energy kindled him, so the
gentleness of love made him mild. Accordingly, to the
rich and the powerful and to yeomen and slaves he em
ployed an equal discipline of holy exhortation, so that
neither did he fawn upon the rich and flatter them, nor
did he oppress slaves or yeomen by severity; but, in
the words of the apostle, he was made all things to all
men, that he might gain all.2 And he did not seize the
certificate of heavenly instruction of his own will, or
before the time; nor did he usurp it by stubbornness
and robbery; but in the progress of his holy humility,
being thirty years or more of age, and supported by the
choice of his master and friends, he received the certif
icate3 in accordance with the rule of the canonical

1 Psalms, xxxiv, i. 2 I Corinthians, ix, 22.

3 The ordination as priest, with the tonsure.

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE 39

constitution/ and, enriched by divers gifts and pres
ents, entered upon the rank of the priestly office in
such wise that he was wholly devoted in will and act to
the works of almsgiving and compassion, so far as he
had power under the severity of the rule and of the
monastic life, and that he always anticipated the hours
of the nightly vigils, and occupied himself diligently in
the toilsome service of prayer. Anger did not steal
away his patience, nor rage shake his forbearance; lust
subdued not his continence, nor did gluttony dishonor
his abstinence; but he so subdued himself to every
frugality of fasting, that, drinking neither wine nor
strong drink,2 he imitated the fathers of the two testa
ments, and might say, with the distinguished teacher
of the Gentiles, " I keep under my body and bring it
into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have
preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." 3

1 Forbidding elevation to the priesthood before the age of thirty.

2 Deuteronomy, xxix, 6; Judges, xiii, 4, 7, 14; Luke, i, 15.

3 I Corinthians, ix, 27.

CHAPTER IV

THAT HE WAS SENT TO KENT BY ALL THE NOBLES,
AND THAT AFTERWARDS HE WENT TO FRISIA

HAVING brought together above some scattered ex
amples of the lofty virtues of Saint Boniface, we con
sider that the matters which follow, relating to the
persevering strength with which he both held fast to
the good things that he had begun and also urged on
and quickly hastened his soul to all other good things,
certainly ought not to be passed by in silence. We
have learned them from the report of trusty men, and
are solicitous to set them down in the clear disclosure
of writing.

For a long time he tempered his mind with the vir
tues enumerated above, and advanced from day to day
in the aforesaid rank of the priesthood to loftier proofs
of good things. Then, in the reign of Ine, king of the
West Saxons,1 a sudden emergency impended upon the
rise of a new dissension; and immediately the chief
men of the churches, with the advice of King Ine, sum
moned a council of the servants of God. And presently,
when all were assembled, a most healthful discussion
concerning this recent dissension wisely arose among
the priestly ranks of the ecclesiastical order. And,

1 688-725.
40

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE / 41

v — ^
adopting the more prudent measure, they decided to

send trusty legates in the Lord to the archbishop of the
city of Canterbury, Bertwald by name: l lest it should
be ascribed to their presumption or temerity, if they
did anything without the advice of the archbishop.
And when the entire senate and the whole order of the
clergy agreed upon and adopted this prudent measure,
immediately the king addressed all the servants of
Christ, asking whom they would charge with the mes
sage of this embassy. Then unexpectedly the supreme
abbot in Christ, Winbert by name, who ruled over the
monastery of Nhutscelle; and Wintra, who directed
the monastery which is called Tyssesburg; 2 and Beor-
wald, who ruled with divine governance the cloister
which is called by a name of the ancients 3 Glestinga-
burg; 4 and also many other fathers of this holy way of
life summoned the saint and led him before the king.
And the king charged him with the message and with
knowledge of the embassy, gave him companions, and
sent him on his way with his grace. Charged with this
message, the saint after a prosperous journey came to
Kent in accordance with the commands of the elders,
and discreetly declared to the archbishop, possessed of
the fillet 5 of the highest priesthood, everything in due
sequence, just as he had been instructed by the king.

1 Archbishop 692-731. 3 The old Saxons.

2 Tisbury. 4 Glastonbury.

5 Infula: a classical reminiscence coming down to Willibald
through Aldhelm (De Laudibus Virginitatis, 33, and Epistola ad
Acircium: pp. 40, 219 Giles) and Boniface (£., 3^ 50, 91). See also
Isidorus Hispalensis, Etymolog^ae, xix, 30.

WILLIBALD

And so, having received a willing answer, after not
many days he returned to his own country, and wisely
delivered the willing answer, of the venerable arch
bishop to King Ine, and to the aforementioned serv
ants of God in the king's presence, and brought great
joy to all. And so thenceforth, by the wonderful benev
olence of the dispensation of God, his name was so
spread abroad, and was held in such honor, not only
among all lay authorities but also among all ranks of
the ecclesiastical service, that from that time he ad
vanced more and more, and very often took part in
their synodal assembly.

Decause a mind consecrated to God is not lifted
i ^e favor °f men or sustained by praise, he

I, / began, with great care and solicitude, to hasten more

\ intently to other things, and to shun the society of his
/ relatives and connexions, and to desire foreign places
/ ( more than those of the lands of his paternal inheritance.
^ But when thus for a long space of time he had most
/ sagaciously weighed well the plan of leaving country
and relatives, at length he took occasion to consult
Abbot Winbert of blessed memory, and openly dis
closed to him all the secrets of his soul, hitherto care
fully concealed within his conscience, and with most
urgent prayers appealed to the soul of the sainted
Winbert to consent to his desire. Winbert, astounded
at first with great wonder, for the time being denied
the longed for journey to the entreaties and prayers of
his disciple, that he might stay the execution of the
proposed plan; but at last, through the prevailing

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE 43

providence of almighty God, the prayer of the suppliant
prevailed also. And the saint began the chosen journey,
and, by the ordinance of the Lord God, completed it,
with such devoted support on the part of the abbot and
of his brethren who lived with him under the discipline
of the rule, that they willingly provided for the ex
penses and comforts that are necessary to human life,
and, greatly moved in heart, long poured out in his
behalf tears and prayers and supplications to the
Lord.

Much strengthened by the armor of the spirit, and
liberally supplied l with the goods of this world, the
saint was well provided with the pay 2 of either life.
Then, accompanied by two or three of the brethren,
whose bodily and spiritual support he required, he set
forth. And so, having traversed immense portions of
the earth, and rejoicing in the fortunate companion
ship of the brethren, he came to a place where there
was a market of merchandise, and which is called even
unto this day by an ancient name of the Angles and
Saxons, Lundenwich.3 And when after no great delay
the sailors were about to depart on their return home,
the new passenger, with the consent of the shipmaster,
diligently went on board ship, and, paying the fare,
came with favorable winds to Dorstet; 4 and, tarrying

1 Sublimatus: literally, ' raised high.'

2 Stipendiis: as a military term, in continuance of the metaphor
introduced by ' armor ' (armatura).

8 London. In the Latin of the period, Londonia, or Lundonia.
Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, ii, 3.

4 Now Wijk bij Duurstede, on the river Lek, about twelve miles

44 WILLIBALD

there a while, paid due praise to the Lord God day and
night.

But a hostile quarrel which arose, on the occasion of
a severe attack of the pagans, between Charles, prince
and glorious duke of the Franks, and Radbod, king of
the Frisians, threw the folk of either side into confu
sion; l and now the greatest part of the churches of
Christ, which formerly in Frisia were subject to the
empire of the Franks, were wasted and overthrown,
while Radbod conducted an. oppressive persecution
and the servants of God were driven out. Moreover,
heathen shrines were reared, and, sad to say, the wor
ship of idols was restored. Then the man of God, per
ceiving the wickedness of perverseness, came to Trecht,2
and waiting there some days, addressed King Radbod,
who came thither: that by compassing and viewing
many parts of those lands, he might diligently inquire
whether in the future an opportunity of preaching
would be anywhere opened to him; and purposing in
his soul that if in any portion of this folk a way of ap
proach for the gospel should ever become visible, he
would minister the seed3 of the word of God. And
this, after the passage of many years, the glorious evi
dence of his martyrdom attested.

southeast of Utrecht: the chief emporium of the surrounding region
until it fell into the hands of the Danes in the ninth century.

Adolf Soetbeer gives some valuable notes on Dorstet in Forschungen
zur deutschen Geschichte, iv (1864), pp. 300-303.

1 In 716.

2 Utrecht (the Roman Ultratrajectum or Trajectum ad Rhenum).

3 II Corinthians, ix, 10.

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE

But it is the singular property of the holiness
saints, that when for the time being they perceive that /
their labor avails nothing because there is no greenness^
of life in the spiritual sprout, they remove to wholly )
different places that are prolific1 of fruitful labor: 2\
since one dwells in a place to no purpose, if the fruit of
holiness is lacking. Therefore the saint, when he had
dwelt for a moderately long time in the barren land of
the Frisians, and the summer and some small part of
the autumn had passed, now left the regions that were
withered by the lack of the dew of celestial fruitfulness,
and, taking with him his travelling companions, de
parted to his native country. Seeking the retirement
of his monastery, he there, received by the love of the
exulting brethren, spent also the winter of the second
year,3 that he might imitate the apostolic voice of the
teacher of the Gentiles, saying: " for I have deter
mined there to winter." 4

1 Reading foecunda with the best manuscript, Monacensis 1086.
The vulgate reading foecundo, which Levison follows, makes no sense.

2 Gregory the Great, Dialogi, ii, 3, in P. L., Ixvi, col. 140.

3 That is, two winters and one summer: from the autumn of 716 to
the spring of 718.

4 Titus, iii, 12.

0

CHAPTER V

HOW AFTER HIS ABBOT DIED HE TARRIED A LITTLE TlME WITH

THE BRETHREN, AND AFTERWARD CAME TO ROME WITH

LETTERS OF INTRODUCTION FROM HIS BISHOP

HAVING now touched briefly and in part upon the vir
tues of the saint, we shall make clearly known his en
suing history, just as we have ascertained the facts
from the regortsj^f newsmongers: that the path of his
life and character may be forever more plainly mani
fest to those who direct themselves toward the pattern
of his holy conversation.

When he had passed the great peril of the journey
and escaped unharmed from the abysses of the sea, and
on his return had betaken himself to the fellowship of
his brethren and then joined their company for many
days, at length heavy sorrow took possession of his
mind, and a fresh grief oppressed his soul. For now he
saw the aged limbs of his teacher grow weaker; and at
last, while the congregation of the monks stood by,
Winbert's sickness waxed exceedingly, and amid shak
ing and trembling the day of his death was at hand;
and finally the saint saw Winbert lay aside the prison
of the body and breathe his last breath, while the
mourning monks looked on sadly. Often in the hearts
of saints the sympathetic piety of compassion shines
with special brightness: since for the moment they are

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE 47

wont to be greatly saddened, but, cleaving to the pre
cept of the apostle, they receive everlasting consola
tion in the Lord.1

The saint now kindly addressed the brethren, and,
mindful of the tradition of the fathers, urged them with
spiritual discourses to preserve perpetually and in all
things the model of the constitution of the rule, and the
pattern of ecclesiastical prescription; and taught that
they should submit themselves to the goveftiment of
some spiritual father.2 Then all with one mind and one
voice earnestly demanded that all should implore our
saint, who at that time was called Winfrid, to assume
the pastoral office of abbot over them. But anon the
saint contemned his country's riches and abandoned
the primacy of government; and, being now ready and
prepared to fulfil his predetermined purpose, excused
himself with sagacious care, and declined and refused
the whole inheritance.

When now the winter time had passed and the
warmth of summer began to glow, and the pristine pur
pose of the gliding year was renewed, he strove with
the utmost solicitude to renew and repeat the journey
which he had laid aside. Then, taking letters of in
troduction from Daniel of blessed memory,3 watchman
of the people4 of God, he essayed to come to Rome, to

1 II Corinthians, i, 5; II Thessalonians, ii, 16.

2 Saint Benedict, Regula, 64.

3 Bishop of Winchester (705-745). As to the letters, see note
below.

4 Plebis. See DuCange, Glossarium Mediae el Infimae Latinitatis,
s. v. It will be noted that the word had a wide ecclesiastical mean-

48 j WILLIBALD

^ — x

the threshold of the apostles. Yet for a while he was

detained by the need of the remaining brethren, now
fatherless; and in such wise did his love of the wailing
monks and compassion for their double sorrow oppose
his plan for the moment, that he was oppressed with
great mental anguish, and knew not which way to turn.
For he feared, on the one hand, lest, if he departed, the
flock which had been committed to his master, and
which wTas now without a shepherd's watchful care,
should be exposed to biting wolves; on the other, that
the autumn season of going abroad might fail him. And
when, not unmindful of his piety, almighty God with
his wonted clemency wished to deliver from anxious
grief his servant, who was perturbed by such great op
pression of soul, and to provide a pleasant directorship
for the flock, presently Bishop Daniel took thought for
the brethren, and set over this church a man of good
quality, Stephen by name, and sent our saint, who
wished to go upon his long pilgrim journey, safe to his
destination.

Forthwith the saint bade farewell to the breth
ren and departed; and in fulfilment of his wish went
through a great extent of country to the place which
now, as we have said above, is called by the name Lun-
denwich. And swiftly mounting the side of a swift
ship, he began to try the unknown paths of the seas;
the sailors danced; the huge sails rose to the breath of
the northwest wind, and with a stiff breeze and a

ing. Possibly some might here prefer the rendering ' diocese ' or
' parish.'

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE 49

lucky voyage they quickly sighted the mouth of
river which is called Cuent,1 and were now safe from
all danger of shipwreck. They came safe to dry land;
but they pitched camp in Cuentawich,2 until the re
maining multitude of the company should have
gathered together.

When all were collected, while each day the cold of
winter threatened, they set forth; and they went to
many churches of the saints, and prayed that by the
help of God's throne they might surmount the snowy
Alpine heights more safely, and experience greater
kindness at the hands of the Lombards, and escape
more easily from the malicious ferocity of the haughty
soldiers.3 And when by the suffrage of the patronage
of the saints and the ordinance of the Lord God the
whole band of companions that clave to the retinue of
our saint prosperously approached the threshold of
Saint Peter the apostle, immediately they returned un
measured thanks to Christ for their safety. And
having entered with great joy the church of Saint Peter
chief of the apostles, most of them brought divers
gifts, asking the annulment of their sins.

Now when not many days had passed, the saint
spoke to the venerable pope of the apostolic see, Greg
ory of blessed memory, second from the first and
prior to the latest of that name, who in the common

1 The Canche, a small stream a few miles south of Boulogne.

2 Probably not far from Staples.

3 The milites or Byzantine troops that garrisoned the Exarchate of
Ravenna. Paul Roth, Geschichte des Beneficialwesens (Erlangen,
1850), pp. 294 f. So also below, p. 58.

50 WILLIBALD

speech of the Romans is also called the Younger,1 and
discovered to him in order the whole occasion of his
journey and visit, and explained the nature of the
ardent desire for which he had labored long and hard
and anxiously. The holy pope, suddenly looking to
ward him with cheerful countenance and laughing eyes,
inquired whether he had brought letters of introduc
tion from his bishop.2 The saint, aroused, threw off
his cloak, and produced a note folded conformably to
custom 3 and a letter, and gave them to the admirable
man of holy memory: who took the letter, and at
once signed to the saint to withdraw. The apostolic
pope perused the letter and examined the note of intro
duction, and thereafter had busy daily conference and
debate with the saint, until the summer season for set
ting forth on the return was at hand. But when the

1 Gregory II (715-731)-

2 The importance attached to such letters is well indicated by a
passage in a letter of Pope Symmachus to Bishop Caesarius of Aries,
dated n June 514: " Et in hac parte magnopere te volumus esse sol-
licitum, ut, si quern de Gallicana vel de Hispania regionibus ecclesi
astic! ordinis adque officii [necessitas] ad nos venire conpulerit, cum
fraternitatis tuae notitiam iter peregrinationis arripiat, ut nee honor
ejus per ignorantiam aliquam contumiliam patiatur, et, ambiguitate
depulsa, a nobis animo secure in communionis gratiam possit admitti."
M.G.H., Epistolae Merowingici et Karolini Aevi, i (Berolini, 1892),
pp. 41 f.

3 Carlo, ex more iniioluta. Presumably a formal ecclesiastical note
of introduction (epistola formata), authenticated by a numerical key
known only to the initiated. There are good examples of the epistola
formata in M . G. H., Leges, sect, v, pp. 557-568, and a brief discussion
in Arthur Giry's Manuel de Diplomatique (Paris, 1894), p. 811. In
addition to this, as is indicated, the saint carried an open letter of
introduction, presumably the one preserved and printed, £., n.

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE

month Nisan, which is April, went by, and already the
gates of lar, or May,1 were opened, then, having asked
and received the benediction of the apostolic see and a
letter,2 the saint was sent by the most blessed pope to
inspect the savage peoples of Germany: that he
might consider whether the uncultivated fields of their
hearts, if tilled by the gospel ploughshare, would be
disposed to receive the seed of preaching.

And so, having collected a great multitude of relics,
he retraced his journey in company with his fellow
servants, and approached the bounds of Italy; 3 and
waited upon Liutprand, most excellent king of the
Lombards,4 with pacific gifts, and addressed him.
Being honorably received by Liutprand, he reposed
his limbs, wearied from the journey; and thus recom
pensed, he traversed hills and plains, and passed over
the precipitous ridges of the Alps.

Approaching the unknown boundaries of the Ba
varians and the contiguous limits of Germany,5 he pro
ceeded into Thuringia on his journey of inspection, in
accordance with the command of the apostolic see:
manifestly after the fashion of the most prudent bee,
which flies around the fields and meadows in its pecu
liar way, and, gently whirring its feathery wings, goes
among the vast numbers of odorous herbs; and proves

L l Bede, De Temporum Ratione, n.

2 £., 12. Dated 15 May 719.

3 In the sense of Upper Italy or Langobardia.

4 712-744.

5 In the narrower sense of the territory east of the Rhine and north
of the Danube. So £.,45.

52\ WILLIE ALD

v^, ___ ^

with its gathering mouth where the honey-flowing
sweetness of nectar is hidden, and, utterly disdaining
all bitter and deadly sap, bears the sweetness to the
hives; and, to illustrate by the words of the apostle,
proves all things, and holds fast that which is good.1
So in Thuringia the saint, in accordance with the com
mand laid upon him by^the apostolic bishop, addressed
with spiritual words theel3e7s^oT3ie church and the
chiefs of the whole people, and summoned them to the
true way of knowledge and the light of understanding,
which before, seduced by perverse teachers, they had
for the most part lost. But the priests and elders -
of whom some devoted themselves to the pious wor
ship of almighty God, while

polluted by unchastity,jiajijoj3^^
wTricir^

- he corrected, warned, and taugh^to_th^bes^of his^
^

from the perverseness of malice to the rectitude of the

in company with the
brethren. Being informed of the death of Radbod,3
king of the Frisians, he rejoiced with great joy,4 and,
desiring that Frisia also might receive the word of God,

1 I Thessalonians, v, 21.

2 Married priests.

3 In 719.

4 So Bugga wrote to Boniface with reference to Radbod's death,
" I return thanks without ceasing to almighty God, because ... he
hath cast down before thee Radbod, the enemy of the Catholic
church." £., 15.

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE

immediately went up the river 1 by ship, and reached
lands uncultivated by the heavenly preaching. And
now that fierce King Radbod's persecution was at an
end, the saint provided the seed of the celestial doc- •
trine, and, satisfying the hunger for the word of
refreshed the multitude, famished by pagan supers ti-
tion, with the food of the preaching of eternity. And
when speedily the spontaneous accomplishment of the
work followed his heart's desire, and the longed for
light of the predestined doctrine began to shine by the
ordinance of the Lord God, and the sovereignty of
glorious Duke Charles over the Frisians was strength-
ened, now the war trumpet of the heavenly word
sounded, and the voice of the preachers thundered fs
with the coming of heaven's fertilizing dew, while the(l
word of God was propagated by the venerable Willi-
brord 2 and his fellow workers. But because he saw
that the harvest truly was plenteous, but the laborers
were few,3 our holy servant of God also became a fel
low worker of Archbishop Willibrord for three years
uninterruptedly,4 and, laboring much in Christ,5 de- /
stroyed temples and sanctuaries and built churches )
and oratories; and, helped by Willibrord, brought no
small people unto the Lord.

But when Archbishop Willibrord had grown old and
was burdened with the weight of many years, he deter
mined, partly at the suggestion of the company of dis-

1 The Rhine. The voyage must have been rather down the river.

2 Born in 657-58. 4 719-22.

3 Matthew, ix, 37. 5 Romans, xvi, 12.

ht*.C) ~

- >••>/ \p j <~

WILLIE ALD

les, to provide for his decrepit old age a relief in his
great ministry, and to choose a faithful man from the
small congregation who would be able to rule so great
a folk. Having summoned our servant of God, he
urged him, with wholesome instruction, to undertake
the episcopal command and rank, and to assist him to
rule God's people. The saint in his humility hastily
refused, answering that he was not worthy of the rank
of bishop; and prayed that so great and high a dignity
might not be imposed upon him while he was still
reckoned a youth in years; and averred that he had
not yet attained the age of fifty years required by the
standard of the canon law: l in order that by every
denial and excuse he might utterly avoid this exalted
rank. Therefore Archbishop Willibrord of holy fame
reproved him with mild words, diligently urging him
to accept the proffered rank, and particularly premis
ing the extreme indigence of the subject folk. But
when not even Willibrord's reproof moved the saint to
consent to undertake this exalted rank, then through
/long delays and evasions a spiritual strife arose be-
stween them, and there was a harmonious discord of
(glorious dispute. The saint, on the one hand, pre
vented from accepting by his sublime humility, refused
the highly honorable rank; Willibrord, on the other,
ensnared by his passionate longing for most pious gain,
coveted the salvation of souls. After they had thus
alternately advanced opposing arguments, our holy

1 Gregory the Great, Dialogi, ii, 2; and other passages cited by
Levison in his note.

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE 55

servant of God, as if set in a kind of spiritual race,1
brought forward a wholly acceptable excuse, saying:

"Most holy bishop! Pilot of the struggle of the
spirit!2 I brought to the nations of Germany the
charge of blessed Pope Gregory of holy memory.3 I,
ambassador of the apostolic see to the western lands of
the barbarians, voluntarily attached myself to thy
lordship and governance; and I did this from the
choice of my own free will, without the knowledge of
my sublime masters, to whose service I am bound and
subject by my vow even unto this day. Wherefore
without the decree of the apostolic see, and without its
commission and authentic command, I dare not under
take a rank so distinguished and sublime."

Moreover, he added a reasonable prayer and request,
saying: " I beseech therefore, that thou elect to send
me, who am bound by the fetters of my own solemn
promise, back to these lands to which at first I was
sent by the apostolic see."

Willibrord, the man of God, when he learned the
occasion of the saint's great promise, bestowed upon
him a benediction, and immediately gave him liberty
to go away. The saint, departing straightway,4

1 I Corinthians, ix, 24.

2 I Corinthians, ix, 25; II Timothy, ii, 5; iv, 7, 8; Saint Augus
tine, De A gone Christiana.

8 The mediaeval practice permitted the use of this phrase as a term
of honor for the living as well as for the dead. G. D. Hofmann, Ver-
mischte Beobachtungen aus der deutschen Staatsgeschichte und Rechten
(Ulm, 1760-64), ii, p. 67.

4 Probably to this journey may be assigned the beginning of the
discipleship of the noble Prankish youth Gregory. Liudger, Vita

56 WILLIBALD

reached a place named Amanaburch : l in the language
of the apostle, " nourished up in the words of faith and
of good doctrine, whereunto " he " attained." 2

Gregorii Abbatis, 2, in M. G. H., Scrip tores, xv, i, pp. 67 f. The story
is finely paraphrased by Selwyn in his poem, pp. 13-15.

1 Amoneburg in Hesse-Nassau, on the river Ohm (Amona) : about
seven miles east of Marburg.

2 I Timothy, iv, 6.

CHAPTER VI

WE have narrated briefly, proceeding from the be
ginning step by step, the proofs of our saint's virtue,
and the perseverance of his labor in the Lord : that we
may recall to memory more minutely and in mass the
succeeding examples of his excellence.

When he had brought unto the Lord a vast people
among the Frisians, and many, educated by him in
spiritual learning, had come to knowledge of the truth
in the beaming rays of the true light; then indeed, pro
tected by the Lord, he went to other parts of Germany
for the sake of preaching, and, with the Lord's help,
came to Amanaburch. There twin brothers ruled,
iDettic namely and Deorulf. The saint summoned
them from the sacrilegious worship of idols, which they
wrongfully practised under a kind of name of Chris
tianity; and withdrew a very great multitude of
people from the malevolent superstition of heathenism,
having disclosed to them the way of right understand
ing, and caused them to put aside their horrible errors;
and, having gathered a congregation of God's servants,
built a cell for a monastery. And in like wise, near to
the borders of the Saxons, by preaching the gospel in
junctions he set free from the captivity of devils the
people of the Hessians, who yet wandered in pagan
rites.

57

WILLIBALD

'When he had cleansed many thousand people from
their inveterate paganism and given them baptism, he
directed to Rome a fit messenger, a faithful bearer of
his letter, Bynna by name; andjbythe service of the,
voiceless word disclosed in ordertcT the~~venerable

father7~ErieDishop of the apostolic see, all the things
which by God's gift had been brought to pass in him;
and showed how a great multitude of people, illumi
nated by the divine spirit, had received the sacrament
of regeneration. But also, writing further, he asked
concerning things which pertained to the daily need of
the church of God and the progress of the people : that
he might obtain the counsel of the apostolic see. When
Bynna the messenger had remained at Rome for some
days, and the time of his return was already at hand,
he received in exchange from the bishop of the apos
tolic see an answer to his embassy. And imme
diately returning, he now brought to his master, after
the passage of no long time, a letter written by the
apostolic see.

When the saint had read the letter that was brought,
he gathered that he was invited to Rome, and sought
in haste to fulfil the highest degree of obedience. With
out delay, attended by a throng of clients and sur
rounded by a train of the brethren, he traversed the
lands of the Franks and the Burgundians, and, having
surmounted the ridges of the Alps, the territories of the
marches of Italy1 and the boundaries of the soldiers.2
And when he beheld the walls of the Roman city,
1 See above, p. 51, n. 3. 2 See p. 49, n. 3.

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE 59

quickly he returned deserved praise and thanks to
God on high; and presently, reaching the church of
Saint Peter, he fortified himself by diligent prayer.
But when he had rested his wearied limbs for a little
time, it was announced to the blessed Gregory, bishop
of the apostolic see, that our servant of God had
arrived. And he was received kindly and conducted
to the pilgrims' lodge.

When a suitable day for their conference arrived,
and the glorious bishop of the apostolic see came to
the church of Saint Peter the apostle, immediately our
servant of God was summoned. After they had ex
changed a few peaceful words of salutation, the apos
tolic bishop questioned him concerning the creed and
the tradition of the faith of the church. Anon our man
of God answered him humbly, saying: "Apostolic
lord ! I, stranger as I am, know that I have no skill in
your familiar language; but I beg that thou grant me
leisure and time to write down my confession of faith,
and that onlythe voicelessword may make a reason
able presentation ormy~faitri7r"~Trhe bishop at once
consented, and commanded him to bring this writing
speedily. And after some space of time had glided
away, the saint brought his confession of faith in the
Holy Trinity, written down in polished, eloquent, and
learned language, and rendered it to the aforesaid
bishop. Nevertheless he waited yet some days.

At last he was summoned again. Having been con
ducted within the Lateran, immediately he cast him
self humbly prostrate on his face at the feet of the

WILLIBALD

apostolic bishop, beseeching his benediction: who
quickly raised him from the ground, and returned to
our servant of God the writing inwhichJj^^
incorrupt truth ojEfaith was manifest, and made him
siTbyTTislside. AncThlT ins tructeHTiim , with whole
some teaching and admonition, to preserve ceaselessly
inviolate this bulwark of faith, and to preach it
earnestly unto others to the limit of his strength. And
he brought forward many other matters relating to the
holy religion and the true faith and questioned the
saint concerning them, so that they spent almost the
whole day in mutual conversation. And at last the
pope inquired how the peoples who before had wan
dered in error and crime received the lessons of the
faith through his teaching. And when he had learned
for a certainty that the saint had admitted an exceed
ing great multitude of the commonalty from the
sacrilegious worship of devils to the fellowship of the
holy church, he intimated to him that he had purposed
to impose upon him the office of bishop, and to set him
over the peoples that before had lacked a shepherd's
care, and in the words of the Lord our God, fainted,
as sheep having no shepherd.1 But the saint, because
he dared not contradict this great bishop set over the
apostolic see, consented and obeyed. And so the
most high bishop of holy authority appointed a day
of ordination, namely the thirtieth of November.2

After the sacred day of the holy solemnity had
dawned, being the nataldayof Saint Andrew and the

1 Matthew, ix, 36. 2 722.

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE 61

day set for the ordination, the holy bishop of the apos
tolic see imposed upon the saint the dignity of the
episcopacy and of the name Boniface; 1 and brought
him the book in which the most sacred laws of the
constitution of the church have been compiled at the
assemblies of the bishops; 2 commanding, that thence
forth this order of episcopal discipline and customs
should remain unshaken in his hands,3 and that the

1 An error, as is shown by the occurrence of the name in several
letters written between 719 and 722. E., 12, 14, 15. Probably Greg
ory conferred the Latin name upon Winfrid on the occasion of his
first visit to Rome in 719.

2 That is, a manual of the canon law: very probably that of Diony-
sius. Rettberg, Kirchengeschichte Deuisdilands, i, p. 406.

3 The ordination oath of Boniface is preserved. £., 16. " I, Boni
face, bishop by the grace of God, promise thee. Saint Peter prince of
the apostles, and thy vicar, blessed Pope Gregory, and his successors,
by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Trinity inseparable,
and by this thy most sacred body, to exhibit all faith and purity of the
holy Catholic faith, and, with God's aid, to abide in the unity of the
same faith, in which assuredly all the salvation of Christians is at
tested; in no wise at any one's persuasion to enter into agreement
against the unity of the common and universal church; but, as I have
said, to exhibit in all matters my faith and purity and union to thee
and to the profit of thy church, to which the Lord God hath given
power to bind and loose, and to thy vicar aforesaid and his successors;
and also I promise that if I shall have knowledge of bishops living
contrary to the ancient institutions of the holy fathers, I will have no
communion or intercourse with them. Nay more, if I shall have
power to forbid them, I will forbid; if not, I will straightway make
faithful report to my apostolic lord. But if, as I pray may not be the
case, I shall attempt in any wise or spirit or on any occasion to do any
thing contrary to the tenor of this my promise, may I be condemned
at the eternal judgment, and incur the punishment of Ananias and
Sapphira, who presumed to practise deceit and to lie unto thee even
concerning their own property."

62 WILLIE ALD

subject peoples should be instructed by these examples.
But also he gave to him and to all subject to him the
friendship of the holy apostolic see thenceforth for
ever.1 And by his most sacred letter he placed our
saint, now a bishop, under the protection and pious
care of the sovereignty of glorious Duke Charles.2

After Boniface by long and devious ways had visited
the territories of great peoples, he came to the aforesaid
prince of the Franks, and was received by him with
veneration. He delivered to Duke Charles the letters
of the abovementioned Roman bishop and of the apos
tolic see, and, subject to his lordship and patronage,3
returned, with the consent of Duke Charles, to the
land of the Hessians where before he had tarried.

Now at that time many of the Hessians, brought
under the Catholic faith and confirmed by the grace
of the sevenfold spirit,4 received the laying on of hands;

This is in substance the oath taken by the Italian bishops of the
time who were immediately subject to the see of Rome (episcopi
suburbicarii) , except for the omission of the promise of allegiance to
the Empire and Emperor.

1 This special relationship of friendship or brotherhood between the
Roman see on the one hand, and Boniface and his household on the
other, was renewed at the accession of Gregory III in 731. See p. 67,
below. Mention of it is also made of it by Boniface, E., 86, 108, in
letters to Zacharias and Stephen III.

2 E., 20. There also remain general letters of commendation given
by Gregory to Boniface under date of i December 722, addressed
Universis Christianis and Clero, ordini, et plebi; another Thuringis
Christianis which doubtless pertains to this time, and another Universo
populo provittciae Altsaxonum which may so belong. Ibid., 1 7-19, 2 1 .

3 The letter of protection issued by Charles is E., 22.

4 Isaiah, xi, 2; Isidorus Hispalensis, Etymologiae, vii, 3; Saint

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE

others indeed, not yet strengthened in soul, refusecTTo
accept in their entirety the lessons of the inviolate faith.
Moreover some were wont secretly, some openly to
sacrifice to trees and springs; some in secret, others
openly practised inspections of victims and divina
tions, legerdemain and incantations; some turned
their attention to auguries and auspices and various
sacrificial rites; 1 while others, with sounder minds,
abandoned all the profanations of heathenism, and
committed none of these things. With the advice and
counsel of these last, the saint attempted, in the place
called Gaesmere,2 while the servants of God stood by/
his side, to fell 3 a certain oak of extraordinary size,}
which is called, by an old name of the pagans, the Oak (
of Jupiter.4 And when in the strength of his steadfast
heart he had cut the lower notch,5 there was present a
great multitude of pagans,6 who in their souls were
most earnestly cursing the enemy of their gods. But

Augustine, De Sermone Domini, i, 4; J. F. Bohmer, Regesta Imperil,
i, i (3d ed., by Engelbert Miihlbacher, Innsbruck, 1899), p. 38,
no. 76a.

1 E., 43-

2 The location is uncertain. There are in Hesse several places
named Geismar.

3 Succidere.

4 The Latin rendering of the Teutonic Thor.

5 Cum arborem succidisset. Of the first or lower notch, cut to the
centre of the tree from the side toward which it was intended that the
tree should fall.

6 As Otloh puts it, " Ad . . . arboris incisionem magna pagano-
rum multitude concurrit ": assembled no doubt from the farms and
villages for miles around, while the axe was making its slow progress
through the tough wood.

64 WILLIBALD

when the fore side of the tree was notched only a little,1
suddenly the oak's vast bulk, driven by a divine blast
from above, crashed to the ground, shivering its crown
of branches as it fell; and, as if by the gracious dis
pensation of the Most High, it was also burst into four
parts, and four trunks of huge size, equal in length,
were seen, unwrought by the brethren who stood by.
At this sight the pagans who before had cursed now,
on the contrary, believed, and blessed the Lord, and
put away their former reviling. Then moreover the
most holy bishop, after taking counsel with the breth
ren, built from the timber of the tree a wooden oratory,
and dedicated it in honor of Saint Peter the apostle.

When by the favor of God's will all that we have
told was fulfilled and accomplished, the saint went on
to Thuringia. And he addressed the elders of the

1 Ad modicum quidem arbore praeciso. Of the second, upper, or
fore notch, on the side which axeman and spectators faced as the tree
fell in the opposite direction.

This passage has been an inveterate stumbling-block to interpret
ers. From Otloh to Arndt, all have given renderings equally unsatis
factory, perhaps because they lacked the practical acquaintance with
the woodman's craft which we may assume in Boniface and Willibald
as Saxons of the eighth century. If we take succidisset and praeciso as
technical terms of woodcraft, as I have done, and if we suppose that
the oak was to some extent hollow, Willibald's account becomes in all
important respects consistent and credible.

It may be objected to this interpretation, that it requires us to take
succidisset as used in a different sense from succidere in the preceding
sentence. This does not seem a serious objection: Otloh, Bonnell,
Kiilb, and Arndt, to name no others, have recognized the existence of
the difference, though none of them has chanced to hit upon the same
rendering for succidisset.

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE 65

church and the chiefs of the people, and summoned
them to forsake their blind ignorance and to return to
the Christian religion which they had before accepted.
For the sovereignty of their kings x came to an end;
and under the perilous leadership of Theotbald and
Heden, whose disastrous and dangerous sway over
them rested rather on tyranny and devastation than
on loyalty, a great number of their counts were visited
with bodily death by the two tyrants, or captured and
carried off by the enemy, and were so greatly strait
ened by evils of various sorts that the remaining rem
nant of the people had submitted to the dominion of
the Saxons. And when the sovereignty of the religious
dukes ceased, I there ceased also in the land attention to
Christianity and religion, and false brethren, seducing
the people, were brought in : who under the name of
religion introduced a large and perverse heretical sectTj
Of whom ar^Torcji twine and Berehthere^EanJ^cJit
andjunradwho

: 3 who

stirred up a most vehement conflict against the man of
God; but, opposed and confuted by the words of
truth, they received a just judgment of recompense.

When the renewed splendor of faith had dawned
among the people, and the church was snatched from
the great snare of error; while the friends of the pro
fane enemy and the abovementioned dangerous se
ducers of the people were now banished: the saint

1 More properly dukes, as they are called in the following sentence.

2 Married clergy. 3 Hebrews, xiii, 4.

WILLIBALD

entered upon a harvest truly plenteous, yet with few
reapers.1 And at first he endured great want of this
world's goods, and frugal living; and, though strait
ened and distressed by great indigence, scattered the
seed of the word of God.2 ^But when little by little the
multitude of the believers increasedj-nd the roll of the
preachers too was multiplied, then also churches were
quickly restored, and the preaching of his doctrines
was diffused in many ways; and the united servants
of God and the most holy monks were gathered to
gether, and a monastery was built in the place which is
called Orthorpf .3 These procured food and raiment for
themselves by laboring assiduously with their own
hands after the manner of the apostle.4

The report of his holy preaching was so spread
abroad, and increased to such a degree, that already
his fame resounded through the greatest part of
Europe. And from the parts of Britain an exceed
ingly great multitude of the congregation of the serv
ants of God had come unto him: readers, and writers
also, and men learned in other arts. Of these a very
great number put themselves under the instruction of
his rule, land in very many places summoned the people

;

L~—

1 Matthew, ix, 37.

2 Liudger (Vita Gregorii, 2) refers to this period: " they were
obliged to live by the work of their hands, and sometimes in fear of
death to flee with their people to the city from the persecution of the
pagans; and there to dwell straitened by hunger for many days, until
the citizens gathered their forces and again drove back the pagans
with the strong hand."

3 Ohrdruf, near Gotha. 4 I Corinthians, iv, 12.

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE (67

~] •

from the profane error of heathenisnrj And some in

the province of the Hessians, and others in Thuringia,
widely dispersed among the people, preached the word
of God to the country districts and villages.

A prodigious multitude both of the Hessians and of
the Thuringians received the sacraments of the faith,
and many thousand people were baptized. And when
now Gregory the Second of blessed memory, pope of
the apostolic see, was deceased,1 and glorious Gregory
the Younger 2 ruled the chair of the apostolic summit
of the aforesaid see, again the saint's messengers came
to Rome and addressed the holy bishop of the apostolic
see, and showed to him the former alliance of friend
ship which his predecessor mercifully conferred upon
Saint Boniface and his household. But also they
assured him of the saint's devoted and humble sub
mission to the apostolic see for the future; and, in
accordance with their instructions, they prayed that
thenceforth he might in devout submission share in the
brotherhood and communion of the sacred bishop and
of the whole apostolic see. Then straightway the holy
pope of the apostolic see offered a conciliatory reply,
and granted communion of brotherhood and friend
ship with himself and the apostolic see to Saint Boni
face and to those subject to him. And he gave the /
ambassadors an archbishop's pall,3 and sent them home I
honorably with gifts and divers relics of saints. ^/

The messengers on their arrival recited to Boniface
the voluntary replies of the man apostolic. He now

1 ii February 731. 2 Gregory III (731-741). 3 £., 28.

S

WILLIBALD

rejoiced greatly, and, being exceedingly strengthened
by the devoted support of the apostolic see, and in
spired by the aid of the divine mercy, built two
churches to the Lord. One was in Frideslare,1 which
he consecrated in honor of Saint Peter chief of the
/apostles. The second was in Hamanaburch; 2 this he
dedicated in honor of Saint Michael the archangel.
Moreover he attached two small monasteries to the
churches, and added to these no small company of the
servants of God, so that unto this day glory and bless
ing and thanksgivings are devoutly offered to the Lord
God.

When all this was duly accomplished, he went to the
lands of the Bavarians, where then Duke Hugobert 3
reigned, and employed among them most assiduously
his ardor for preaching, and went around to many
churches and inspected them. And he was armed with
so great zeal of divine fortitude, that truly he con
demned and cast out, in accordance with the decrees
of the canons, a certain schismatic beguiled by hereti-
depravity, Eremvulf by name, and amended the
eople from the perverse idolatry of his sect. And he
epartedj and returned to the brethren who were es-
tablished under the diocese of his governance: having,
according to the word of the apostle, a desire to come
unto the brethren. 4

1 Fritzlar.

2 The same as Amanaburch, above.

3 Died not later than the beginning of 736.

4 Romans, xv, 23.

0

CHAPTER VII

HOW HE EXPELLED THE HERETICS FROM THE PROVINCE OF THE

BAVARIANS, AND DIVIDED IT INTO FOUR PARISHES

WE have occupied some time with selected examples
of the merits of Saint Boniface, in order that we may
set forth, briefly indeed, the strong direction of religion
by which he guided himself unceasingly through all
periods of his life. For in truth among saints it is a
practice of long standing, that they improve them
selves daily through the examples of others, and that
the strength of love in their hearts increases with the
decrease of the reckoning of their days.

When no small number of churches had been built
among the Hessians and in Thuringia, and a warden
had been provided for each church, then, accompanied
by a band of the disciples, he came for the third time
to Rome, on account of the brotherly communion of
the sacred apostolic bishop and of the whole clergy:
that he might enjoy the salutary conversation of the
apostolic father, and, being now advanced in age, com
mend himself to the prayers of the saints. But when
after the immensely long journey he was presented to
the lord apostolic, Gregory the Younger the Second, he
was kindly received by the pope, and was held in such
great veneration by everyone, as well Romans as

WILLIBALD

strangers, that many flocked together unto his whole
some teaching. For of Franks and Bavarians, and also
of Saxons arriving from Britain, and of other provinces,
a prodigious multitude clave sedulously unto his ad
monition. And when he had tarried in these regions
for a great part of a year,1 and had made the round of
the relics of the saints, praying as he went; then in-
deed, having again saluted the venerable bishop of the
apostolic see, he returned home, honored and enriched

7 with gifts and saints' relics. Coming to Italy, he en
tered the walls of the city Ticena,2 and, as his limbs
were already weary from old age, rested with Liut-
prand, the honorable king of the Lombards.

Departing from Italy, he visited the Bavarians,3 not
only because of the invitation of Odilo their duke, but
also of his own desire, and remained among them
many days, preaching the gospel of the word of God.
He renewed the sacraments of the true faith and of
religion, and drove away the destroyers of churches
and perverters of the people. Of these some formerly
falsely preferred themselves to the rank of the episco
pacy; some assigned themselves to the priestly office;
some by these inventions and innumerable others mis
led a great part of the people. But the saint, already
dedicated to God from infancy, and not enduring the

/ insult to his Lord, restrained Duke Odilo and the
whole multitude from the unjust heretical false sect
and from the lewd deception of the priests.4 And with

1 About 738. 2 Pavia. 3 In 739.

4 The relation of Boniface to the work of the earlier Celtic mis-

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE 71

the consent of Duke Odilo he divided the province of
the Bavarians into four parishes, and to rule them
made four bishops, whom he ordained and raised to
the episcopal rank. Of these the first, John by name,
assumed the episcopal chair of the church in the town
which is caUed Salzburch.1 The second was Erembert,
who ruled as chief watchman the church at Freising.
The third, Gaibald, was shepherd and guard of the
church in the city of Regina.2 And when all things
were duly performed, and the Christian order was
established, and the canon laws were restored among
the Bavarians, then he returned home to his own
churches. And he governed the people committed to
his care, and watched the folds of the flocks, and pro
vided sentinels for the church; and so delivered the
sheep from the jaws of impious wolves.3

When the temporal kingdom of glorious Duke
Charles was finished,4 and the sovereignty of his sons
Carloman and Pippin waxed strong, then indeed, by
the help of the Lord God and at the suggestion of Saint

sionaries in Germany is discussed in detail by August Ebrard in his
essays, Die iroschottische Missionskirche des sechsten, siebenten, und
achten Jahrhunderts, und ihre Verbreitung und Bedeutung auf dem
Festland (Giitersloh, 1873), and Bonifatius, der Zerstorer des colum-
banischen Kirchentums auf dem Festlande (Giitersloh, 1882).

1 Salzburg.

2 Ratisbon (Regensburg).— The three complete the tale of bishops
ordained by Boniface at this time. The fourth bishop, Vivilo of
Passau, had been already ordained by Gregory III, as is expressly
stated in Gregory's letter of 29 October 739, confirming the establish
ment of the bishoprics. £., 45.

3 John, x, 12. 4 Charles Martel died in October, 741.

72 WILLIE ALD

Boniface the archbishop, the testament of the Chris
tian religion was confirmed, and the synodal institu
tions of the orthodox fathers were established in proper
form among the Franks, and all was amended and
cleansed by the authority of the canons. Th£wror|gful
connectipji^ojlayrrien with concubines was in part
severed at the exhortation of the saint f^wKife the

disjoineci

anajDuFaway.2 Ana~Tnrough the teaching of Saint
great ardor of divine love was kindled in
Carloman and Pippin, that to a large extent they freed
the church from the perverse worship to which it had
been long accustomed : wherein it had lost the right of
eternal inheritance,3 being involved of its own will, and
cjeceived by the suggestion oT heretics": — FoTtorSuCh a
degr^rliaTrtrie~1;ein^^ the light of

spiritual doctrine among the people, that the dark fog
of heretical deception had covered a very great part
of the church. JJw^a^fJblieJiere^^

bert and Clemens,4 led astray by profane greed of

1 Capitulare Suessionense, 2 March 744, 4: inM.G.H,, Capitularia,
i, p. 29.

2 Levison quotes Capitulare Suessionense, 3, 8; also Karlmanni
Capitulare, 21 April 742, i, 6, 7, on pp. 25 f., or in the Epistolae, 56.
In all these cases, however, the wording is ambiguous — perhaps
purposely so.

3 Hebrews, ix, 15.

4 Aldebert, a Gallic pseudo-saint, is an interesting figure, of whom
one would like to know more than is contained in the scanty and
partial notices that have survived. He would appear to have been a
prophet and visionary somewhat of the type of the late Joseph Smith.
Clemens, a stubborn Bible Scot, or Irishman, professed a supreme dis-

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE 73

money,1 assiduously turned the people from the way of
truth. But when Saint Boniface the archbishop, with
the consent of Carloman and Pippin, glorious dukes,
expelled them from the unity of the church, they were,
in the words of the apostle, delivered unto Satan for
the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be
saved in the day of the Lord.2

regard for the views of the holy fathers Jerome, Augustine, and Greg
ory, and sought rather to shape his conduct by the precepts of the
Book of Deuteronomy. E., 57, 59, 60, 62, 77; Capitulare Suessio-
nense, 2 March 744, 2, 7.

1 " Quod crimen iisdem ab ipso Bonifatio minime obiectum est."
Levison.

2 I Corinthians, v, 5; E., 59.

CHAPTER VIII

HOW THROUGH HIS WHOLE LlFE HE PREACHED ZEALOUSLY;
AND WITH WHAT END HE LEFT THIS WORLD

FOUR synodal councils were held,1 where there gath
ered together bishops and priests, deacons and clerics,
and all ecclesiastical ranks, whom Duke Carloman of
illustrious memory caused to be summoned under the
sovereignty of his kingdom. At these, Boniface, arch
bishop; ruler of the bishopric of the city of Magontia
by the consent and gift of Carloman himself; legate of
the Roman church and of the apostolic see, sent first by
the holy and venerable bishop of that see, Gregory the
Younger, or the Second, to count from the First; then
by the honorable Gregory who was the Younger, count
ing from the Second, or the Third, to count from the
First; Boniface, I say, urged that numerous canons
and ordinances of the four principal early councils be
preserved for the wholesome increase of the heavenly
doctrine: in order2 that, as in the Nicene council,3 when
Constantine Augustus administered the empire of the
world, the falsehood of the Arian blasphemy was over
thrown; as the assembly of a hundred and fifty fathers,

742-747

f«r~ /*t/«

Willibald condenses the succeeding summary of the four principal
icils from Isidorus Hispalensis, Etymologiae, vi, 16.

2

councils
3 In 325-

74

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE

when Theodosius the Elder ruled Constantinop
condemned one Macedonius, who denied that the Holy
Spirit is God; as the union of two hundred bishops,
assembled at the city of Ephesus 2 under Theodosius
the Younger, separated from the Catholic church,
with a righteous curse of excommunication, Nestorius,
who declared that there are two persons in Christ; and
as the council of Chalcedon,3 an assembly of six hun
dred and thirty priests, in accordance with the prede
termined decision of the fathers bestowed the curse of
excommunication upon Eutyches, abbot of the city of
Constantinople, and Dioscurus his champion, rebels
against the citadel of the Catholic faith: so indeed in
Francia, when all the falsehood of the heretics was
utterly rooted out and the conspiracy of the wicked
destroyed, the power of the divine law might be in- /
creased; the synodal canons of the general council/ n
might be received; while at the same time a synodalV
assembly of bishops of spiritual understanding might /
meet in accordance with the predetermined prescript
tion of the authentic constitution. /

The constant expectation of war, and the hostility^
and insurrections of the surrounding barbarian tribes,
with the attendant attempts of alien robber nations
without to destroy the Frankish realm by violence, had
prevented the holding of synodal assemblies, or even
had caused them to be so wholly forgotten that they
were utterly obliterated from present memory and un-

1 In 381. 3 In 451.

2 In 431-

WILLIE ALD

own.1 For it is the nature of the world, that even
if it be recruited, it daily suffers damage and decrease
within itself; while if it is not thoroughly renewed, it
expends itself and vanishes away, and hurries breath
lessly to its predestined end. Wherefore in the pilgrim
age of this mortal life, if for healing spiritual leaders
have ascertained any matters for the common profit of
the weak in this world, even if at times these matters
have been introduced into the minds of men, they
ought to be preserved and most strongly defended by
Catholics, and held with minds determined and im
movable: lest human oblivion steal upon them, or the
enticing delight of worldly enjoyment impede at the
instigation of the devil. For this reason our holy
bishop of the Lord, moved by sharpest anxiety in this
regard, sought to deliver the folk from the baleful
beguiling of the crooked serpent,2 and very often urged
Duke Carloman to assemble the synodal meeting : that
both to men then living and to later generations the
wisdom of spiritual learning might be disclosed and the
knowledge of Christianity come, while the snaring of
souls was averted.

After he placed a mirror (as it were) of canonical

rectitude before all ranks for a pattern of right living,

/ and the way of truth became clearly visible to all,

Boniface, being old, weak, and decrepit, presented a

1 Boniface wrote to Pope Zacharias, early in 742 : " The old men
say that the Franks have held no synod for more than eighty years,
nor had an archbishop, nor established or renewed in any place the
canon laws of the church." E,, 50.

2 Isaiah, xxvii, i.

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE

plan wholesome for himself and his feebleness, and m
accordance with the rule of ecclesiastical management
provided a pastoral magistracy for the peoples: that,
whether he lived or died, the folk might not lack pas
tors and their healing care. He promoted to the epis
copal order l two men of good diligence, Willibald and
Bur chard, and divided unto them the churches com
mitted to his charge in the innermost parts of the East
Franks and the confines of the Bavarians. To Willibald
he entrusted the government of his diocese 2 in the
place named Haegsted.3 To Bur chard he delegated
rank and office 4 in the place called Wirzaburch,5 and
allotted to his province the churches in the borders of
the Franks and Saxons and Slavs. And even unto the
glorious day of his death he opened without ceasing the
narrow way 6 of the heavenly kingdom unto the multi
tudes.

* Pippin, fortunate successor of his brother Carlo-
man,7 by the grace of God received the royal kingdom
of the Franks, and there being now a slight lull in the
disorder of the peoples,8 was raised to the rank of king.9

1 In 741.

2 Vita Willibaldi, 5, in M.G.H., Scriptores, xv, i, p. 105.

3 Eichstatt. 5 Wiirzburg.

4 £., 50, 51, 53. 6 Matthew, vii, 14.

7 Carloman abdicated in 747 and became a monk.

8 749-75L

9 In November, 751. Annales Regni Francorum (Hannoverae,
1895: in Scriptores Rerum Germanicarum) , pp. 8, 10: " Pippin was
chosen king according to the custom of the Franks, and anointed by
the hand of Archbishop Boniface of holy memory, and was proclaimed
king by the Franks in the city of Soissons." Rettberg rejects the

78 ) WILLIBALD

Then he began solicitously to fulfil the vows he had
sworn unto the Lord, and to restore without delay the
synodal ordinances, and to renew the canonical mys
teries which his brother in accordance with the exhor
tation of Saint Boniface the archbishop had faithfully
commenced, and to prefer Boniface in friendship and
honor, and to obey his precepts in the Lord. But
because the saint, oppressed by bodily weakness,1 was
not altogether able to attend the synodal assemblies,
he now determined, with the approval and advice of
the glorious king, to set a proper minister over his
flock. He appointed Lul, his able disciple,2 to teach
the multitude of the great church, and advanced and
ordained him to the episcopal rank, and committed to
him the inheritance which he had won in Christ by
earnest labor. Lul was the trusty comrade in the Lord
of his pilgrimage, and was witness both of the suffering
and of the consolation.3

Now when the Lord wished to deliver his servant
from the temptation of this world and to raise him up
from the tribulations of the temporal life, then it was
determined by the ordinance of the Lord, that, ac
companied by the servants of God, he should come to
/Frisia, which aforetime he had left in body, not in
)mind: in order that where first he entered upon his
active preaching and his profits and rewards began,

anointing of Pippin by Boniface, and supports his position by a
careful analysis of the Frankish chronicles. Kirchengeschichte
Deutschlands, i, pp. 383-391. Hauck, on the other hand, accepts the
story. Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, i (2d ed.) p. 561.

1 £., 93. 2 Ibid. * II Corinthians, i, 7.

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE

there also, leaving the world, he might receive trie
charge of recompense.

He foretold the coming day of his death to Bishop^
Lul by a marvellous and in a way prophetic for
and made known to him with what end he was at last /f)
to leave the world, and set before him in order his plans
for the building of churches and the teaching of the vlT*
people. " I desire," said he, " to fulfil the journey set
before me. I shall not be able to call myself back from
the welcome departing journey. For now the day of
my departure is at hand,1 and the time of my death
approaches; now I shall put aside the prison of the
body, and return to the prize of the eternal recom
pense. But do thou, dearest son, conduct to comple
tion the building of churches which I have commenced
in Thuringia. Do thou most earnestly recall the
people from the trackless waste of error. And do thou
complete the construction of the basilica already
begun at Fulda,2 and bring thither my body aged by
many hastening years." 3 And having made an end of
this discourse, he added to it more words of the follow
ing sort, saying: " Son, provide by thy most prudent
counsel everything which must be joined to our use in
this our journey; but also lay in the chest of my books7
a linen cloth, wherein my decrepit body may
wrapped."

1 II Timothy, iv, 6.

2 See Gregor Richter, Beitrage zur Geschichte der Grabeskirche des
hi. Bonifatius in Fulda in Festgabe zum Bonifatius-Jubilaum 1905
(Fulda, 1905).

3 £., 86.

8o WILLIBALD

At this sad speech Bishop Lul could not restrain his
sobs, but forthwith wept unrestrainedly. Then Saint
Boniface made an end of the conversation and turned
to other matters. He did not draw back from the
journey which he had undertaken, but,1 after a few
days' interval, took travelling companions and went
on board ship, and pushed down the Rhine,2 seeking
haven at night time, until he entered the moist fields
of the Frisians, and passed in safety across the lake
which in their tongue is called Aelmere,3 and made a
round of inspection along shores barren of the divine
seed.4 And after escaping peril and hazard of rivers
and the sea and of the great waters, he went safely into
danger, and visited the pagan nation of the Frisians,
whose land is divided by the intervening waters into
many territories and districts, yet in such wise that the
different names indicate the property of a single
nation. But since it would be tedious to repeat the
districts in order, we desire to mention by name only
those which are veraciously cited to afford connection
to our narrative: that place and language may equally
transmit our story of the saint's piety, and disclose the
end with which he left this world.

So he traversed all Frisia, and removed the pagan
worship and overthrew the erroneous way of heathen-

1 At this point the punctuation of the older texts is preferable to
that of Jaffe and Levison, who begin their new paragraph in the mid
dle of a sentence.

2 This voyage must be placed in the summer — probably the early
summer — either of 753 or of 754.

3 Aelmere, ' the Noble Sea '; now the Zuyder Zee.

4 Matthew, xiii; Luke, viii, n.

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE

ism, and earnestly preached the word of God; and,
having destroyed the divinity of the heathen temples,
he built churches with great zeal. And now he bap
tized many thousand persons, men and women and
little ones, being aided by his fellow soldier and suf
fragan bishop Eoba, whom he summoned to Frisia to
aid the feebleness of his old age, charging him with the
bishopric in the city which is called Trecht; and by
priests and deacons, of whom these are the names:
Wintrung and Wai there and Ethelhere, endowed with
the sacerdotal office of the priesthood; Hamund,
Scirbald, and Bosa, assigned to the service of Levites;
Wacchar and Gundaecer, Illehere and Hathovulf,
raised to the conventual order of monks. These with
Saint Boniface published widely through the people
the seed of eternal life,1 and, supported by the Lord
God, made it known to such an extent, that even as in
accordance with the pattern of the apostolic custom
they were of one heart and one soul,2 so they had one
and the same martyr's crown, one and the same reward
of victory.

After the splendor of faith of which we have spoken
dawned through Frisia, and the happy end of our
saint's life approached,3 then, accompanied only by a

1 Luke, viii, n: " The seed is the word of God."

2 Acts, iv, 32.

3 According to Eigil, Vita Sturmi, 150. (in M.G.H., Scriptores, ii,
p. 372) , this was hi the second summer of the Frisian ministry, after an
intervening winter in Germany. " In the tenth year after he removed
to the holy place [Fulda], the holy Archbishop Boniface, having taken
counsel with the king and other Christians, went to the farther places

WILLIBALD

number of his personal followers, he pitched his tents
by the bank of the river which is called Bordne,1 which
is upon the limits of the districts which in the country
tongue are called Ostor- and Westeraeche. But be
cause he had appointed unto the people, already scat
tered far and wide, a holiday of confirmation of the
neophytes, and of the laying on of hands by the bishop
upon the newly baptized and of their confirmation,
every man went unto his own house,2 that in accord
ance with the precise command of the holy bishop all
might be presented together on the day set for their
^confirmation.

|H* ^ [^ VjcyVf f' Wholly opposite was the event. When the appointed
day had dawned, and the morning light was breaking
after the rising of the sun, then came enemies instead
of friends, new lictors instead of new worshippers of
the faith; and a vast multitude of foes, armed with
spears and shields, rushed with glittering3 weapons

of the Frisians, which were addicted to the pagan worship, and there
by teaching and baptizing brought a vast multitude of people unto the
Lord. Thence after a long time departing, he came in safety to his
own churches in Germany. But in the following year he came again
to the moist fields of the Frisians; for he desired to complete the work
of preaching which he had begun."

1 The Boom, in the Dutch province of Friesland.

2 John, vii, 53.

3 Bibrantibus: wrongly rendered as passive (mil geschwungenen
Wa/en) by Bonnell, Kiilb, and Arndt; as indicating sound (mil
Wajjengeton) by Simson, who is led astray by the will-o'-the-wisp
authority of Otloh's paraphrase. I take it that the idea meant to be
conveyed is that of the play of light upon swiftly moving steel, as in
Scott's story of the attack on the smugglers in Guy Mannering: " The
press became furiously agitated, while some endeavored to defend

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE (83

^ — -

into the camp. Then hastily the attendants sprang
forth against them from the camp, and betook them
selves to arms on either side, and were eager to defend
against the crazy host of the mad folk the sainted
martyrs that were to be. But when the man of God
heard the onset of the tumultuous throng, imme
diately he called to his side the band of clerics,1 and,
taking the saints' relics which he was wont to have
always with him, came out of the tent. And at once,
rebuking the attendants, he forbade combat and
battle, saying: "Stop fighting, lads! Give up the
battle! For we are taught by the trusty witness of
Scripture, that we render not evil for evil,2 but con
trariwise good for evil.3 Already the long desired day
is at hand, and the voluntary time of our departure is
near.4 Therefore be ye comforted in the Lord, and
suffer with joy the grace of his permission. Trust on

themselves, others to escape; shots were fired, and the glittering
broadswords began to appear flashing above the heads of the rioters."

Unequivocal instances of the reference of vibrare to the play of light /
are Cicero, Academica Priora, 33 (in a discussion of the colors of the \
sea): "Mare . . . mine, qua a sole collucet, albescit et vibrat "; J
Silius Italicus, Punica, iv, v. 156: ^

" Colla viri fulvo radiabant lactea torque,

Auro virgatae vestes; manicaeque rigebant

Ex auro; et simili vibrabat crista metallo."

1 " Moreover there suffered with him fifty religious men of his
clergy, priests, deacons, and monks; but the better known among
them were Eobanus the bishop and Adalharius the priest." Martyro-
logium Fuldense, in Levison, Vitae, p. 60.

2 I Thessalonians, v, 15; Romans, xii, 17.

3 I Peter, iii, 9; Matthew, v, 39-44-

4 II Timothy, iv, 6.

WILLIBALD

him, and he will release your souls." But also with
fatherly speech he incited those standing near, priests
and deacons and men of lower rank, trained to God's
service, saying: " Men and brethren, be of stout heart,
and fear not them who kill the body, since they are not
able to slay the soul,1 which continues without end;
/ but rejoice in the Lord, and fasten to God the anchor
S of your hope. For straightway he shall render you the
reward of perpetual recompense, and shall give you an
abode in his heavenly palace with the angels who
dwell on high. Do not enslave yourselves to the empty
pleasures of this world; be not seduced by the vain
flatteries of the Gentiles; but endure firmly here the
sudden moment of death, that ye may be able to reign
with Christ for all time." While with such exhorta
tion of doctrine he was kindly inciting the disciples to
the crown of martyrdom, quickly the mad tumult of
pagans rushed in upon them with swords and all the
equipment of war, and stained the saints' bodies with
propitious gore.

Having worked their will on the mortal flesh of the
just, the exultant throng of heathens at once seized the
spoils of victory, the fruit of their damnation, and,
wasting the camp, shared and plundered the booty.
But also they stole the chests, in which were many
volumes of books, and the boxes of relics; and, be-
lievingTrieTTTSelves enriched by a great abundance of
gold and silver, carried away the cases, locked as they
were, to the shipg. Now in the ships was the daily
1 Matthew, x, 28.

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE

sustenance of the clerics and attendants, and
wine still left of the same supply. And when they
found the beloved drink, the heathens hastily com
menced to sate their thirsty maws and to make their
stomachs drunken with wine; and at length, through
the wonderful direction of almighty God, they took
counsel, and began to discuss concerning the booty
and spoils that they had taken, and to deliberate how
they might mutually share the gold or silver which
they had not even seen. While they held wordy dis
cussion over the riches they reckoned so great, again
and again dispute and quarrels sprang up; and finally
there began such enmity and discord, that insane
frenzy divided the raging throng into two factions,
and at last they turned the weapons, with which earlier
they had murdered the holy martyrs, against each
other in merciless strife.

After the most part of the raging throng had been
laid low, the survivors ran rejoicing to the wealth
gained by the loss of souls and life, while the rivals
who opposed them respecting the passionately coveted
treasure lay dead. Having broken open the boxes of
books, they found volumes instead of gold, and for
silver, leaves of divine learning. Thus deprived of the
precious reward of gold and silver, they scattered over
the meadow some of the books which they found;
others they threw away, casting some into the reed
thickets of the marshes, hiding the rest each in a dif
ferent place. But by the grace of almighty God and
through the prayers of Saint Boniface the archbishop

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WILLIBALD

and martyr, the books were found a long time after,
sound and unharmed, and returned by the several dis-
coverers to the house1 in which even unto this day
they are of use for the salvation of souls.2

Sad at the loss of the wealth on which they had reck
oned, the murderers returned home. After three days'
respite, they experienced in their own possessions a
r loss, and also paid life for life in retribution.
For the omnipotent Author and Reformer of the world
wished to avenge himself on his enemies, and with the
zeal of his wonted compassion to take revenge for the
blood of saints shed for his sake.3 Deeply moved by
the recent act of mad wickedness, he wished to show
openly his wrath, too long deferred, against the idola-

1 Presumably the cathedral at Fulda.

2 Three books, the so-called codices Bonifatiani, ascribed by tradi
tion to this collection, are preserved in the Landesbibliothek at Fulda.
Carl Scherer, Die Codices Bonifatiani in der Landesbibliothek zu Fulda,
in Festgabe zum Bonifatius-Jubilaum (Fulda, 1905) ; W. M. Lindsay,
Early Irish Minuscule Script (Oxford, 1910), pp. 4-12. One of these,
cut almost through by some sharp instrument, is traditionally identi
fied with the book mentioned in the Life of Boniface attributed to
Bishop Radbod of Utrecht (Levison, Vitae, p. 73) : " As I was making
inquiries concerning Boniface in the same region, on the chance that I
might find some material for my work, I was told that a certain woman
was yet living, though greatly enfeebled by age, who was wont to
assert with an oath, that she was present when the soldier of Christ
was beheaded, and to say, that when he was smitten by the sword he
covered his head with a copy of the holy gospels: that beneath it he
might receive the stroke of the assassin, and that he might have its
defence in death, as he had loved its words in life."

3 Revelation, xvi, 6; Psalms, Ixxix, 10. Adam of Bremen uses the
second of these references in a very similar connection. Gesta Ham-
maburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum, i, 49.

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE 87

ters. And as the unexpected tidings of the temporal
slaughter of the sainted martyrs flew through the dis
tricts and villages and the whole province, and the
Christians learned of the corporeal death of the mar
tyrs, they at once collected a very large expeditionary
force, and, being warriors prepared to take speedy
vengeance, hurried to the boundary. After the lapse
of the three days' period mentioned above, they en
tered the land of the infidels as unharmed but un-/
friendly guests, and overthrew with prodigious carnage^
the pagans who came up against them. The pagans / ^ /
were unable to withstand the first onset of the Chris
tian folk, and consequently betook themselves to flight
and were slaughtered in great numbers. Fleeing, they
lost their lives and household goods and children. But
the Christians took as spoil the wives and little ones l
of the superstitious folk, their menservants also and
maidservants, and returned to their own land. And it
came to pass in wondrous wise, that the neighboring
heathen that survived, shattered by present mis
fortune, were enlightened by the glory of faith and
preferred to shun eternal torment; and, thoroughly
terrified by the administration of the divine rebuke,
accepted, upon the death of Bishop Boniface, the
proof of his doctrine which they rejected while he
lived.

With swelling sails and favorable breezes, the body
of the sainted bishop, and also those of the other
martyrs, were brought after not many days across
1 Genesis, xxxiv, 29; Numbers, xxxi, 9.

88 WILLIBALD

the sea which is called Aelmere to the abovenamed
city of Trecht. There they were deposited and in
terred/ until religious and faithful brethren in the
Lord arrived from Magontia, sent by ship by Bishop
Lul, the successor of our holy bishop and martyr of
Christ, to bring the corpse of the saint to the monas
tery which he had built during his life, and which is
situate on the banks of the river Fulda. Of these
brethren there was one, Hadda by name, the promoter
of the journey and organizer of the party, who led a
life of singular sanctity and peculiar chastity and con
tinence. To him especially, with the brethren who
went with him, Bishop Lul entrusted the performance
of this embassy and the bringing of the sacred body:
that greater honor of devotion might be paid to the
venerable saint, and that the witness of many might
prevail more in those matters which they heard or saw.
When the honorable brethren of this holy company
came to the city of Trecht, a small crowd of the people
gathered to oppose them. When the crowd heard how
an edict had been issued by glorious King Pippin, the
count of the city proclaimed an interdict, and forbade
that the body of Bishop Boniface should be removed
thence. But the strength of the Almighty is stronger
than men's strength. Wherefore immediately, in the
presence of all, a marvellous and memorable miracle
was heard, wrought through angelic rather than human
understanding. The bell of the church, untouched by
human hands, was rung, as a token of the admonition
1 Eigil, Vita Sturmi, isa.

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE 89

of the sacred body; so that all, smitten by sudden fear
and terror, were stupefied, and trembled exceedingly,
and cried out that the body of this righteous man must
be given up. And so at once the body was yielded,
and was honorably removed by the aforesaid brethren
of sacred memory, and without labor of rowers l was
brought on the thirtieth day after the saint's decease
to the abovementioned city of Magontia.

The wonderful providence of almighty God brought
it to pass, that on one and the same day, though the
time had not been beforehand set and appointed, there
assembled unto the funeral of this great man, as if the
day had been set and predetermined, not only the
ambassadors who brought the sacred body, but also
many faithful men and women from distant and widely
scattered countries. Moreover the saint's successor in
his venerable office, Lul, bishop of the Lord, who at
that time was present in the king's palace, came to the
city of Magontia as it were at the same hour and mo
ment, though he was altogether ignorant of the occa
sion, and knew not of the arrival of the sacred body.2

1 " Per Rheni alveum navim trahere, et superiora petere coepe-
runt." Vita Sturmi, i$b.

2 This passage is discussed at length by Michael Tangl in his essay
"Das Todesjahr des Bonifatius," in Zeitschrift des Vereins fur hess-
ische Geschichte und Landeskunde, Neue Folge, xxvii (Cassel, 1903),
pp. 243 f. It appears to me, however, to weigh somewhat heavily
against Tangl's contention (see below) that Boniface died in 754, not
755 as stated by Willibald. In the latter year Lul's presence at the
palace at Verneuil near the end of June is probable, since King
Pippin had assembled there a synod of " almost all the bishops of the
Gauls." M.G.H., Capitularia, i, pp. 32-3?; Bohmer-Miihlbacher,

90 W1LLIBALD

And all, strangers and citizens, were oppressed by
sorrow and grief, yet rejoiced abundantly and were
glad. For in viewing the temporal and bodily death
of this great bishop, they grieved, on the one hand, for
the loss of his corporeal presence, while on the other
hand they believed that he would be protector to
them and theirs for all time to come. Wherefore,
their hearts torn by these conflicting emotions, the
people, with the priests and deacons and every ec
clesiastical rank, carried the dead saint to that place
which he had determined upon while alive.1 They
prepared a new sarcophagus in the church, and placed
the body there with the customary rites of sepulture.
And when all was duly performed, they returned to
their homes, comforted by the power of faith.

But in the place where they interred the sacred body
there was an abundant succession of divine blessings.
Through the prayers of the saint, those who came
thither possessed by divers infirmities obtained healing
remedy of body and mind. Some already moribund in
the whole body and almost completely lifeless, at the

Regesta, i, i, pp. 40 f. In the summer of 754 also Pippin was near
Paris, at Verberie and (28 July) at St. Denis. Regesta, i, i, pp. 38 f.
But Tangl's confident assertion, " Wahrend derselben Zeit hatte Lull
in hochster Eile eine Reise an den Hof unternommen, um sich rasch
die Nachfolge in Mainz bei Pippin und dem am Konigshof weilenden
Papst zu sichern," is in truth the merest conjecture, and, in view
of the care with which Boniface had provided for the succession before
his departure to Frisia (p. 78, above; and E., 93), a most unlikely
one on the face.

1 The cathedral at Fulda. Eigil says that Lul wished to retain the
body at Mayence. Vita Sturmi, isb.

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE 91

last breath, were restored to their pristine health.
Others, whose eyes were veiled by blindness, received
their sight. Yet others, bound fast in the snares of the
devil, out of their senses and mad, afterward regained
soundness of mind, and, restored to pristine health,
gave praise and glorified God: who deigned to adorn
and enrich and honor his servant with this great gift,
and to glorify him by dazzling miracles made manifest
to present and future times and ages, when the fortieth
year of his pilgrimage had passed: which year also is
reckoned of the incarnation of the Lord the seven hun
dred and fifty-fifth, and the eighth indiction.1 More
over he sat in the episcopacy thirty-six years six
months and six days.2 And so in the manner described
above, on the fifth of June, rewarded with the triumph
of martyrdom, he departed to the Lord: to whom is
honor and glory unto ages of ages. Amen.

1 The Fulda tradition, supported by Tangl in his essay mentioned
above, gives the year as 754. Tangl's arguments, though they have
won a very general acceptance, seem to me far from conclusive.

2 An error. See p. 60, n. 2.

CHAPTER IX

How IN THE PLACE WHERE THE BLOOD OF MARTYRS WAS

SHED, A LIVING FOUNTAIN APPEARED TO THOSE WHO WERE

INSPECTING THE PREPARATIONS FOR A CHURCH

HAVING recounted the saint's distinguished deeds in
childhood, boyhood, youth, and the prime of life, and
even in old age, let us return to those wonders that by
the help of the Lord were wrought to declare to mortals
the sanctity of the saint's life, after this world's race
was run and that life was happily ended ; and recall to
memory a miracle for folk to remember and repeat.
Venerable Bishop Lul told us the story of the miracle
even as he learned it from glorious King Pippin, who
in turn heard it from eyewitnesses. As Lul related it
to us, it was as follows.

In the place where of yore the precious blood of the
holy martyr was shed, the church and a great part of
the Frisian folk planned to rear high upon a deep foun
dation an earthen mound. This was because of the
vast irruptions of the neap and spring tides,1 which in
alternation disturb the tides of sea and ocean, the less
ening of the waters and the floods.2 On the mound they
proposed to raise a church — as was done later 3 —

1 Ledonis ac malinae inruptiones.

2 Bede, De Temporum Ratione, 29.

3 Dedicated to Saint Paul and Boniface. Versus Alchuini de Ec-
clesia Sancti Liudgeri, in M.G.H., Poetae Latini Aevi Carolini, i (1881),
p. 304:

" Adjuvat hinc Paulus, doctor Bonifatius inde,
Haec illis quoniam constat simul aula dicata."
92

THE LIFE OF BONIFACE 93

and to erect a habitation of the servants of God in the
same place. But when now the mound was wholly
finished and the entire work of its erection was com
pleted, the residents and inhabitants of that place,
having returned home, had some discussion among
themselves in regard to the want of fresh water, which
throughout almost all Frisia occasions the greatest
difficulty both to men and to beasts. Then at length,
through the Lord's compassion, a certain man, Abba
by name, who in accordance with the edict of glorious
King Pippin administered the office of count over that
district and place and was director of the work in
question, taking comrades with him, mounted, and
rode round the hill, and inspected the mound. Sud
denly and unexpectedly the steed of an attendant,
while merely stamping on the ground, felt it sinking
and giving way altogether, and wallowed, its fore
legs held fast in the soil, until those who were more
active and skilful jumped down very hurriedly from
their steeds, and pulled out the horse that was stuck
fast in the earth. But at once a miracle stupendous
and worthy to behold was made manifest to those who
were present. A fountain, exceeding clear beyond the
manner of that country, and wondrous sweet and pleas
ant to the taste, came bursting out, and, penetrating
through unknown channels, flowed forth, so that it
seemed already a very large brook. Astounded by
this miracle, they returned home with rejoicing and
gladness, and made known to the churches those
matters which they had seen.

A LIST OF

EDITIONS AND TRANSLATIONS
OF THE LIFE

A LIST OF EDITIONS AND
TRANSLATIONS OF THE LIFE

(a) Editions

Henricus Canisius. Sancti Willibaldi Episcopi Eichstadiani
Liber de vita S. Bonifacii Martyris, Germanorum Apos-
toli, Archiepiscopi Moguntini. Nunc primum editus
ex manuscripts codicibus Monasterii Rebdor/ensis,
prope Eichstadium, et Magnifici et Cl. D. Alberti Hungeri
Procancellarii Academiae Ingolstadiensis, &c. In his
Antiqua Lectio, torn, iv, pars secunda (Ingolstadii,
1603), pp. 337-391, 742-745-1

This is repeated, with a new preface and additional
notes, in the second edition of Canisius, by Jacques
Basnage (Thesaurus Monumentorum, etc., Amstelae-
dami or Antverpiae, 1725), in vol. ii, pp. 227-249.2

Nicolaus Serarius, in Epistolae S. Bonifacii Martyris (Mo-
guntiae, 1605; with new title-page, 1629), pp. 253-284.
From a manuscript furnished to Serarius by Andreas
Weber of Frankfort, supplemented from the edition of
Canisius. Begins: " Prologus in Vitam, vel Passionem
Beatissimi Martyris Christi, & Archiepiscopi Boni
facii."

1 Title, p. 337; De Willibaldo, Bonifacio, Lullo, Megingozo, pp.
338-40; text, pp. 341-386; Notae et variae lectiones, pp. 387-391;
Variae lectiones in Vitam S. Bonifacii, scriptam a S. Willibaldo, ex
membranis m. s. Monasterii Windbergensis in Bavaria, pp. 742-745.

2 Text, pp. 232-249.

07

98 EDITIONS AND TRANSLATIONS

Lauren tius Surius. Vita S. Bonifacii A rchiepiscopi Mogun-
tini, Germanorum Apostoli et Martyris, author e S. Wili-
baldo primo Eistatense Episcopo. In the fourth edition
of his De Probatis Sanctorum Vitis or Vitae Sanctorum
(Coloniae Agrippinae, 1617), Junius, pp. 49~57- Lacks
Chapter IX.

In the latest edition of Surius (Augustae Taurinorum,
1875-80) Willibald's work is omitted.

Jean Mabillon. Vita Sancti Bonifacii Episcopi Maguntini,
et Martyris, Auctore Willibaldo ipsius discipulo. Ex
tomo 4. Henrici Canisii, et Nicolao Serario. In Acta
Sanctorum Ordinis S. Benedicti, saeculum tertium, pars
secunda (Lutetiae Parisiorum, 1672), pp. 4-27.

In the second edition of the same (Venetiis, 1734),
pp. 1-25 (text, pp. 3-25).

Godfried Henschen and Daniel van Papenbroeck. Vita I,
auctore Willibaldo Presbytero. Ex Ms. Trevirensi et
editionibus tribus, Canisii, Serarii, ac Mabilionis. In
Acta Sanctorum, Junius, torn, i (Antverpiae, 1695), pp.
460-473; ibid. (Venetiis, 1741), 'pp. 460-473; editio
novissima, curante Joanne Carnandet, Junius, torn, i
(Parisiis et Romae, 1867), pp. 453-465.

Georg Heinrich Pertz. Vita S. Bonifacii Archiepiscopi,
auctore Willibaldo Presbytero. In Monumenta Ger-
maniae Historica, Scrip tores, ii (Hannoverae, 1829),
PP- 331-353 (text, pp. 333-353).

John Allen Giles. De Vita vel Passione Beatissimi Mar
tyris Bonifacii, auctore Willibaldo. In his Sancti Boni
facii Opera quae extant Omnia (Londini, 1844), vol. ii,
pp. 143-182. From Serarius, with some emendations
from Pertz.

EDITIONS AND TRANSLATIONS 99

Giles reprints this in his Vita [I] quorundum [!]
Anglo-Saxonum: Original Lives of Anglo-Saxons and
others, who lived before the Conquest (London, 1854),
pp. 157-197. This volume is the sixteenth and last of
the Publications of the Caxton Society.

Jacques Paul Migne. Vita S. Bonifacii, Auctore Willibaldo,
ipsius discipulo. In Patrologia Latina (title page, Pa-
trologiae Cursus Completes), vol. Ixxxix (Parisiis, 1850),
coll. 603-634. Repeated from Mabillon.

Philipp Jaffe. Willibaldi Vita S. Bonifatii. In his Biblio-
theca Rerum Germanicarum, torn, iii (Monumenta Mo-
gun tina), Berolini, 1866, pp. 429-471. Also in Vitae
Sancti Bonifatii Archiepiscopi Moguntini, reprinted
for school use from the above work in the same place
and year, pp. 10-52.

Vita Sancti Bonifacii Episcopi Moguntini et Martyris,
auctore Willibaldo, secundum priorem, ut videtur, con-
scriptionem nunc primum edita. In Analecta Bollan-
diana, i (Paris and Brussels, 1882), pp. 51-72.

Not the original text of Willibald's Life, as the editors
supposed, but a condensation made in the twelfth cen
tury or earlier.1

August Nurnberger. Vita S. Bonifatii, auctore Willibaldo.
Aus der Munchener Handschrift neu herausgegeben und
mit textkritischem Apparat versehen. In Siebenund-
zwanzigster Bericht der wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft
Philomathie in Neisse (Neisse, 1895), pp. 113-180 (text,
pp. 123-179). Reprinted in separate form, Breslau,

1895. '

The reprint adds at the end a page of " Erganzungen
und Berichtigungen."

1 Analecta Bollandiana, xv, pp. 268-270; Levison, Vitae Bonifatii,
pp. xxvii f .

ioo EDITIONS AND TRANSLATIONS

Wilhelm Levison. Vita Bonifatii auctore Willibaldo. In
his Vitae Sancti Bonifatii Archiepiscopi Moguntini
(Hannoverae et Lipsiae, 1905), pp. 1-57. With a full
and excellent introduction and good notes. Levison's
work is included in the series Scriptores Rerum Ger-
manicarum in usum Scholarum ex Monumentis Ger-
maniae Historicis separatim editi; but it is in no sense a
repetition of Pertz's edition.

(b) Selections

Martin Bouquet prints extracts in his Recueil des His-
toriens des Gaules et de la France, torn, iii (Paris, 1741),
pp. 664-666 (nouvelle ed., 1869), and torn, v (1744),
pp. 424-425 (nouvelle ed., 1869). From Mabillon.

Arthur West Haddan and William Stubbs, Councils and
Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and
Ireland, vol. iii (Oxford, 1871), pp. 295-296, give so
much of Chapter IV as in this translation is comprised
in the second paragraph, lacking the last sentence.
From Jaffe.

Ernst Dummler, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Epis-
tolae Karolini Aevi, ii (Berolini, 1895), pp. 500-501,
gives a recension of the Prologue from manuscripts.

(c) German Translations

Dat leven des Erwerdighen hilligen Bisschops und mertelers
sunte Bonifacy. A fifteenth century Low German trans
lation of the Life by Willibald, with some abridgment
and the omission of the Prologue, the beginning of
Chapter VIII, and Chapter IX, and with some addi
tions from the Life attributed to Bishop Radbod of

EDITIONS AND TRANSLATIONS 101

Utrecht. The translation was made at Freckenhorst in
Westphalia. It has been edited by W. Dorow (Denk-
maler alter Sprache und Kunst, i, i, Bonn, 1823, pp. 53-
86) and by J. H. Schulte (Das Leben des h. Bonifacius,
des Apostels der Deutschen, in niederdeutscher Sprache,
Warendorf and Miinster, 1852).

Heinrich Eduard Bonnell. Leben des heiligen Bonifacius
wn Willibald. Am der Lateinischen Urschrift des achten
Jahrhunderts zum ersten Male ubertragen. Berlin, 1856.
Philipp Hedwig Kiilb. Willibalds Leben des heiligen Boni
facius. In his Sammtliche Schriften des heiligen Boni
facius (Ratisbon, 1859), vol. ii, pp. 213-270.
Bernhard Eduard Simson. Willibald's Leben des heiligen
Bonifazius, nach der Ausgabe der Monumenta Ger-
maniae ubersetzt und erklart. Berlin, 1863. A spirited
and scholarly translation, with good notes.
Wilhelm Arndt. Willibalds Leben des heiligen Bonifazius.
In Die Geschichtschreiber der deutschen Vorzeit, VIII.
Jahrhundert, 2. Band (Berlin, 1863), pp. 1-47; second
edition (Leipsic, 1888), pp. 1-52. Arndt anticipated
the editors of the text in using — though only to a
limited extent — the best manuscript, Monacensis
1086.

M. M. Wilden. Willibald' s Leben des heiligen Bonifacius,
aus den Monumenta Germaniae iibersetzt. An appendix
(pp. 315-360) to his Beda des Ehrwurdigen Kirchenge-
schichte der Angelsachsen (Schaffhausen, 1866).
Heinrich Joseph Mertens. Leben oder Leiden des seligsten
Martyrers Bonifazius, verfasst wn Willibald. In his
Eine heilige Kbnigsfamilie (Ratisbon, etc., 1875), pp.
124-175. Of inferior value.

102 EDITIONS AND TRANSLATIONS

(d) French Translation

Charles Barthelemy. Vie de Saint Boniface, Archeveqw
de Mayence et Martyr, ecrite au Huitieme Siecle par Wil-
libalde, Pretre du Diocese de Mayence, et completee au
Neuweme Siecle par Saint Litdger, Premier £v£que de
Mimigerneford. In his Les Vies de tons les Saints de
France depuis le Premier Siecle, neuvieme annee (Ver
sailles, 1868): the Life by Willibald in coll. 705-745;
extracts from Liudger's Life of Gregory, coll. 745-759.

INDICES

INDEX OF AUTHORS CITED
IN THE NOTES

Adam of Bremen, 86.
Alcuin, 92.
Aldhelm, 31, 41.
Analecta Bollandiana, 99.
Annales Regni Francorum, 77.
Arndt, Wilhelm, 64, 82.
Augustine, Saint, 55, 62.

Bede, 28, 31, 33, 43, 51, 92.
Benedict of Nursia, Saint, 30,

34, 47-
BIBLE, THE:
Acts, 81.

I Corinthians, 37, 38, 39, 55,
66, 73-

II Corinthians, 44, 47, 78.
Daniel, 35.
Deuteronomy, 39.
Genesis, 87.

Hebrews, 25, 65, 72.

Isaiah, 62, 76.

John, 35, 71, 82.

Judges, 39-

Luke, 29, 39, 80, 81.

Mark, 35.

Matthew, 29, 30, 53, 60, 66,

77, 80, 83, 84.
Numbers, 87.
I Peter, 83.
Philemon, 35.

Philippians, 35.
Psalms, 37, 38, 86.
Revelation, 86.
Romans, 30, 35, 53 , 68, 83.

I Thessalonians, 52, 83.

II Thessalonians, 47.

I Timothy, 35, 56.

II Timothy, 36, 55, 79, 83.
Titus, 45.

Binterim, A. J., 12.
Bohmer, J. F., 63, 89, 90.
BonneU, H. E., 64, 82.

Capitular e Suessionense, 72, 73.
Cassianus, Joannes, 34.
Cicero, 83.

DuCange, 47.
Durand, Ursin, 16.

Ebert, Adolf, 12.
Ebrard, August, 71.
Eigil, n, 81, 88, 89, 90.
Eugippius, 29.

Festgabe zum Bonifatius-Jubi-

laum 1905, 79, 86.
Forschungen zur deutschen Ge-

schichte, 44.

105

io6

INDEX OF AUTHORS

Gaisford, Thomas, 13.

Giles, J. A., 13, 16.

Giry, Arthur, 50.

Gregory the Great, 25, 34, 45,

54-

Hauck, Albert, u, 78.
Hofmann, G. D., 55.

Isidorus Hispalensis, 13, 31, 32,
41, 62, 74.

Jaffe, Philipp, 14, 32, 80.
Jerome, Saint, 25.

Karlmanni Capitular e, 72.
Kiilb, P. H., 12,64,82.
Kylie, Edward, 16.

Levison, Wilhelm, 17, 27, 32,
45, 54, 72, 73, 80, 83, 86, 99.
Lindsay, W. M., 86.
Liudger, 55, 66.

Mai, Angelo, 12.
Manitius, Max, 13, 14, 17.
Martene, Edmond, 16.
Martyr ologium Fuldense, 83.
Migne, J. P., see Patrologia

Latina.
Monumenta Germaniae His-

torica :

Auctores Antiquissimi,ix, 23.
Capitularia, i, 72, 73, 89.
Epistolae Merowingici et
Karolini Aevi, ii, 15, 50.
See S. Bonifatii et Lulli
Epistolae.
Leges, sect, v, 50.

Poetae Latini Aevi Carolini,
i, 13, 14, 92.

Scriptores, ii, 81. See Eigil.

Scriptores, xv, i, 12, 56, 77.
See Liudger, Vita Willi-
baldi, Vita Wynnebaldi.
Miihlbacher, Engelbert, 63, 89,

90.

Niirnberger, August, 12.

Nun of Heidenheim, the, see
Vita Willibaldi, Vita Wynne
baldi.

Otloh, 1 8, 63, 64, 82.

Patrologia Latina, 16, 25, 34,

45-

Poenitentiale S. Bonifacii, 12.
Programm des konigl. kathol-

ischen Gymnasiums zuNeisse,

12.

Rettberg, F. W., 12, 61, 78.
Rheinisches Museum, 13.
Richter, Gregor, 79.
Roth, Paul, 49.
Rousseau, J. B., 18.
Rufinus, 25.

S. Bonifatii et Lulli Epistolae,
n, 13, 14, 15, 16, 33, 41, 50,
51, 52, 61, 62, 63, 67, 71, 72,

73, 76, 77, 78, 79, 90-
Scherer, Carl, 86.
Schmitz, H. J., 12.
Scott, 82.
Scriptores Rerum Germani-

carum, 77.

INDEX OF AUTHORS

107

Selwyn, William, 33, 56.
Serarius, Nicolaus, 12, 14.
Silius Italicus, 83.
Simson, B. E., 82.
Smith, I. G., 16.
Soetbeer, Adolf, 44.
Symmachus, Pope, 50.

Tangl, Michael, 89, 90, 91.
Trithemius, Joannes, 19.

Victorius Aquitanus, 23.
Vita Willibaldi, 77.
Vita Wynnebaldi, n.

Wasserschleben, F. W. H., 12.
Wattenbach, Wilhelm, 12, 17.
Wilmanns, August, 13.

Zeitschrift des Vereins fur hess-
ische Geschichte und Landes-
kunde, 89.

GENERAL INDEX

Abba, Prankish count, 93.
Adalharius (Ethelhere) , 83 , n. i .
Ad-Escancastre (Exeter), 30.
Aelmere (the Zuyder Zee), 80,

88.

Aethelbald, king of Mercia, 15.
Aldebert, Gallic pseudo-saint,

72 f.

Aldhelm, 15.
Alps, the, 49, 51, 58.
Altsaxones, 62, n. 2.
Amanaburch (Amoneburg), 56,

57, 68.

Anacletus (Anicetus), 25.
Ananias, 61, n. 3.
Ancients, the (the old Saxons),

30, 4i-
Angles, 43.
Anointing of Pippin, the, 77,

n. o.

Arianism, 74.
Auguries, 63.

Augustine, Saint, 72, n. 4.
Auspices, 63.

Barbarians, 55.

Bavarians, the, 51, 68, 70, 71,

77-

Bee, simile of the, 51 f.
Bell, miracle of the, 88 f .
Benedict, Saint, of Nursia, 34.
Beorwald, abbot of Glaston-

bury, 41.

Berehthere, opponent of Boni
face, 65.

Bertwald, archbishop of Can
terbury (692-731), 41 f.

Bibrantibus, 82, n. 3.

Boniface, Saint, n, 24, 25.
name of, 47, 61.
writings of, 1 2-1 6.
Life of, by Willibald, 17, 23-

93-

later lives, 17 f.
modern literature relative

to, 18 f .
importance and character of

his work, 19 f.
his mother, 27.
his father, 27-30.
early desire for the monastic

life, 27-30.
enters the monastery at

Exeter, 30.
early studies, 31 f.
overcomes the passions of

youth, 32.

removes to Nhutscelle, 33.
great learning of, 33 f .
gains fame as teacher and

preacher, 34-38.
ordained priest, 38 f.
abstinence of, 39.
embassy to Canterbury, 40 ff.
first missionary journey to

Frisia, 42-45-

109

no

GENERAL INDEX

Boniface, again at NhutsceUe

46 f.

first journey to Rome, 47-51
labors in Thuringia, 52, 64 ff

69, 77-
aids Willibrord in Frisia, 52

56.
converts many Hessians

57f.,62ff.
second journey to Rome, 58-

62.

ordination as bishop, 60 ff.
under the protection o

Charles Martel, 62.
fells the sacred oak, 63 f.
receives reinforcements from

England, 66 f .
made archbishop, 67.
builds churches, 68.
inspects the Bavarian

churches, 68.

third journey to Rome, 69 f .
attacks schismatics in Ba
varia, 68, 70 f.
ordains bishops, 71, 77, 78.
at the Prankish church coun
cils, 71-76.
conflict with Aldebert and

Clemens, 72 f.

appoints Lul his successor

in the see of Mayence, 78.

his final missionary work in

Frisia, 78-82.
the martyrdom, 82 ff.
the sepulture, 87-90.
miracles following his death,

90-93-

Bordne (Boorn), river, 82.
Bosa, deacon, 81.

Britain, 24, 66, 70.
Bugga, abbess, 16.
Burchard, bishop of Wiirzburg,

77-

Burgundians, the, 58.
Bynna, messenger, 58.

Caesarius, bishop of Aries, 50,
n. 2.

Canterbury, 41.

Carloman, duke of Austrasia
(741-47), 7i, 72, 73, 74, 76,
77-

Ceillier, Remy, 16.

Celtic missionaries in Ger
many, 70, n. 4.

Chalcedon, Council of (451),
75-

Charles Martel, Frankish may
or of the palace and duke of
Austrasia, 44, 53, 62, 71.

Clemens, expelled from the
church by Boniface, 72 f.

Bodices Bonifatiani, 86, n. 2.

Confession of faith, 59.

Constantine the Great, Roman
emperor, 74.

Constantinople, Council of

(38i), 74 f-

Councils, ecclesiastical, 40 f.,
71 f., 74 ff-, 77 I-, 89, n. 2.

Crimean War, the, 18, n. i.
Crooked serpent, the, 76.

'uent (Canche) river, 49.

luentawich, 49.

)anes, the, 43, n. 4.
)aniel, bishop of Winchester
(705-45), 16, 47, 48.

GENERAL INDEX

in

Deorulf, German chief, 57.
Dettic, German chief, 57.
Deuteronomy, Book of, 72, n. 4.
Dionysius Exiguus, 61, n. 2.
Dioscurus, excommunicated,

75-

Divinations, 63.
Donatus, 13.
Dorstet, city, 43.
Dudd, abbot, 14, 16.
Diimmler, Ernst, 13, 15.

Eadburga, abbess, 16.

Eanbercht, opponent of Boni
face, 65.

East Franks, the, 77.

Ebert, Adolf, 18.

Eigil, ii.

England, 18.

Eoba (Eobanus), assistant to
Boniface, 81, 83, n. i.

Ephesus, Council of (431), 75.

Episcopi suburbicarii, 61, n. 3.

Epistola for mata, 50, n. 3.

Erembert, bishop of Freising,

71-

Eremvulf, schismatic, 68.

Ethelhere, priest, 81, 83, n. i.

Eusebius of Caesarea, 25.

Eutyches, abbot of Constanti
nople, excommunicated, 75.

Exempla mrtutis, 12, n. i.

Exeter, see Ad-Escancastre.

Fountain, miracle of the, 92 f .

Francia, 52, 75.

Franks, the, 44, 58, 62, 70, 72,

77-
Freising, 71.

Frideslare (Fritzlar), church

and monastery at, 68.
Frisia, 44, 52, 8o; 81, 93.
Frisians, the, 44, 45, 52, 53, 57,

80, 81, n. 3, 92.

Fulda, abbey, n, 18, 81, n. 3.
cathedral of, 79, 86, n. i,

90, n. i.
Fulda, river, 88.

Gaesmere (Geismar), felling of

the sacred oak at, 63 f.
Gaibald, bishop of Ratisbon,

Gaul, 24.

Germany, 14, 18, 24, 51, 55, 57,

81, n. 3.

Giles, John Allen, 13, 16.
Glestingaburg (Glastonbury),

monastery, 41.
Gregory I, the Great, pope

(590-604), 25, 72, n. 4.
Gregory II, pope (715-31),

49 #., 55, 58, 59-62, 67, 74.
Gregory III, pope (731-41),

67 f., 69 f., 71, n. 2, 74.
Gregory, disciple of Boniface,

ii, 55, n. 4-
Gundaecer, monk, 81.

Hadda, monk, 88.
Haegsted (Eichstatt), 77.
Hamanaburch, 68. See Aman-

aburch.

Hamund, deacon, 81.
Hathovulf, monk, 81.
Hauck, Albert, 18.
Heathen, Heathens, see Pagans.
Heden, Thuringian chief, 65.

112

GENERAL INDEX

Hegesippus, 25.

Heretics, 74 f .
in Thuringia, 52, 65.
in Bavaria, 68, 70.
among the Franks, 72 f.
early Celtic missionaries in
Germany, 70, n. 4.

Hessians, the, 57, 62 ff., 67, 69.

Hilary, Roman archdeacon, 23,
n. i.

Hugobert, duke of the Ba
varians, 68.

Hunraed, opponent of Boni
face, 65.

lar, month, 51.

Illehere, monk, 81.

Incantations, 63.

Ine, king of the West Saxons

(688-725), 40 ff.
Infula, 41, n. 5.
Isidore of Seville, 13.
Italy, 51, 58, 70.
Itinerant preaching, practice

of, 28.

Jaffe, Philipp, 14.
Jerome, Saint, 72, n. 4.
John, bishop of Salzburg, 71.

Kent, 41.

Kylie, Edward, 16.

Lateran, the, 59.
Legerdemain, 63.
Levison, Wilhelm, 17.
Liutprand, king of the Lom
bards (712-44), 5i> 70-
Lombards, the, 49, 51, 70.

Lul, successor of Boniface in
the bishopric of Mayence,
15, 17, 23, 78, 79 f., 88, 89,
92.

Lundenwich (London), 43, 48.

Macedonius, condemned, 75.
Magontia (Mayence), city, 74,

88, 89.

Mai, Angelo, 12.
Manitius, Max, 18.
Megingoz, bishop of Wlirz-

burg, 17, 23.
Migne, J. A., 16.
Milites, 49, n. 3.
Miracles, 88 f., 90 f., 92 f.

Nestorius, excommunicated,

75-

Nhutscelle (Nursling, Nut-
shalling), monastery, 13, 33,

41.

Nice, Council of (325), 74.
Nisan, month, 51.
Nithard, 14, 16.
Nun of Heidenheim, the, u.

Oak of Jupiter, the, 63 f .
Odilo, duke of the Bavarians,

70 f.

Oilpress, simile of the, 23 f.
Orthorpf (Ohrdruf), monastery

at, 66.
Ostoraeche, district in Frisia,

82.
Otloh, monk of St. Emmeram,

17 f.

GENERAL INDEX

Pagans, 19 f., 32, n. i, 57, 66,
n. 2.

in Frisia, 44, 52 f., 80-87.

Hessians, 57 f., 63 f., 67.

Thuringians, 65, 67.

slaughter Boniface and his
companions, 82 ff.

quarrel over the booty, 84 ff.

chastised, 86 f .

heathen practices, 16, 63.
Pamphilus, 25.
Pilgrims' lodge, the, at Rome,

59-

Pippin, duke of Neustria (from
741), of Austrasia (from 747),
king of the Franks (751-68),
7i, 72, 73, 77 f«, 88, 89, n. 2,
92, 93-

Plebis, 47, n. 4, 62, n. 2.

Potthast, August, 18.

Radbod, king of the Frisians,

44, 52, 53-

Regina (Ratisbon), 71.
Rettberg, F. W., 18.
Rhine, the, 53, n. i, 80, 89, n. i.
Romans, 69.

Rome, 19, 25, 47, 58, 67, 69.
Rousseau, Johann Baptist, 18.
Ruthard, fictitious monk of

Hirschau, 19.

Sacrificial rites, 63.

Saint Michael, church of, at

Hamanaburch, 68.
Saint Peter, church of, at

Frideslare, 68.
Saint Peter, church of, at

Rome, 49, 59.

Saint Peter, oratory of, at

Gaesmere, 64.
Salzburch (Salzburg), 71.
Sapphira, 61, n. 3.
Saxons, of England, 43, 70.
Saxons, people of Germany, 57,

65> 77-

Schismatics, see Heretics.
Scirbald, deacon, 81.
Scythia, 14.
Selwyn, William, 18.
Serarius, Nicolaus, 14.
' Seron,' 13, n. 6.
Sevenfold spirit, the, 62.
Slaves, 38.
Slavs, 14, 77.

Smith, Isaac Gregory, 16, 18.
Soissons, 77, n. 9.
Soldiers, the, 49, 58.
Springs, sacrifices to, 63.
Stephen II, pope (752-57), 62,

n. i, 89, n. 2.
Stephen, successor of Winbert,

48.
Sturmi, abbot of Fulda, n.

Theodosius I, the Great, Ro
man emperor, 75.

Theodosius II, emperor of the
East (408-50), 75.

Theotbald, Thuringian chief,

65-
Thuringia, 51, 52, 64 f., 67, 69,

79-

Thuringi Christiani, 62, n. 2.

Ticena (Pavia), 70.

Tides, the, 92.

Torchtwine, opponent of Boni
face, 65.

GENERAL INDEX

Trecht (Utrecht), city, 44, 81,
88 f.

Trees, sacrifices to, 63.

Trithemius, Joannes, 19.

Turkey, 18, n. i.

Tuscany, 24.

Tyssesburg (Tisbury), monas
tery, 41.

Uncultivated fields, metaphor

of the, 51.
Utrecht, see Trecht.

Victims, inspection of, 63.
Vivilo, bishop of Passau, 71,

n. 2.
Voyages, 43, 46, 48 f.

on the Rhine, 53, 80, 88, 89.

on Aelmere, 80, 87 f.

Wacchar, monk, 81.
Waldburga, abbess of Heiden-

heim, n, n. i.
Walthere, priest, 81.

Westeraeche, district in Frisia,

82.
Willibald, author of the Life of

Boniface, n, 17.
Willibald, bishop of Eichstatt,

"» 77-
Willibrord, English missionary,

'apostle of the Frisians,'

53 ff-
Winbert, abbot of Nhutscelle,

33, 41, 42 f., 46.
Wintra, abbot of Tisbury, 41.
Wintrung, priest, 81.
Wirzaburch (Wiirzburg), 77.
World, nature of the, 76.
Wulfhard, abbot of Ad-Escan-

castre, 30, 32.
Wynnebald, abbot of Heiden-

heim, n.

Yeomen, 38.

Zacharias, pope (741-52), 14,
16, 62, n. i, 76, n. i.

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